


If Today Was Your Last Day

by Heki564



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Character Death, F/M, M/M, Tragedy/Comedy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-12
Updated: 2013-05-17
Packaged: 2017-11-25 04:39:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 14
Words: 31,703
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/635211
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Heki564/pseuds/Heki564
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What if you knew your death was coming? Would you stand up and change the world? Based off of If Today Was Your Last Day by Nickleback.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Finally decided to move this over from Fanfiction.net. I'll try to update every two days. Enjoy!

Can you imagine a world where everyone would know when their deaths were right around the corner? People in this world would more than likely be full of gloom, dreading the day when they would see the mark of death upon their bodies. The mark, a dark purple X, would always show up within a year before their deaths; however, the time before their deaths wouldn't always be the same. A person could die in a day, or a year, but no one would ever really know the exact time.

This world would be full of dreary people. After all, that X symbolized that death was closer than ever and could now take you at any moment. This alone would be enough to send most into a mad depression; if not just drive them completely insane. People with the mark would walk around completely numb, never trying to feel the happier emotions, or even stop to watch a sun rise. Not knowing when death would take them, they'd become paranoid, afraid of the world around them and even despise the world for choosing them. Others would pity them and view them as the damned until the cursed ones fell before death's feet.

This is the account of a group of high school friends living in such a world. Soon, this mark will make a huge impact on their lives; as well as, if they have their way, the world.

~xXx~

Deidara stared in shock at his bare chest with wide blue eyes. Right over his heart was a large purple X, death's calling card. The blonde's eyes started to water as a range of questions over took him. How could this have happened? Why him? He was only sixteen! He was starting his second year of high school today and he still had his whole life ahead of him. How could that be ripped from right out underneath his feet? His sorrow built into anger as he gritted his teeth at the last question.

He knew he needed to calm down, so he let out a great sigh and wiped the built up tears from his eyes. He had to be optimistic about this. Maybe, if he's lucky, this curse would last as long as Pein's has; Pein being the leader of sorts in his rag-tag group of friends. He called the shots and gave everyone a purpose, even with death on his heels. His mark had shown up a month ago and yet nothing had seemed to change except for the X staining the boy's left cheek.

Deidara turned is weary gaze back to his face. His cerulean eyes had the whites stained pink and his normal smile was nowhere near his face. He glanced to the green glowing numbers of his digital clock in the mirror and quickly moved away from his reflection. He had lost a lot of time in the few moments after he registered the X was actually on his chest. He was going to be late if he didn't hurry up and the last thing he needed was his Danna yelling at him for tardiness.

The blond rushed around the room, trying to tie up the top part of his long blond hair in its usual topknot and throwing on the first pair of black skinny jeans he found. Then he quickly followed it with a tight black shirt with a bright green splatter design. He grabbed his lime green converse, hopping towards the door as he put them on, and ran out the door after taking his Akatsuki hoodie from the coat rack by the door.

Akatsuki was the name Pein had come up with for their group. The day he had announced their name and thrown each of them a black hoodie with a large red cloud across the back was the day after his mark had appeared. Their golden haired leader had announced that from that day on, they were going to make a difference in the world. Pein had decided that he would not live out his final days by moping in a corner like the rest of the world. Instead he was going to try to make something of it. He was going to try and change something. He had finished his speech with his hopes that they would carry out his wish after he was gone.

Deidara just wished he was as strong as Pein. He didn't think he could smile and shrug off his end just like he had. That was why Pein was the leader. He never backed down, never wavered, and was damn sure to get the job done.

Deidara ran the two blocks to school to make up for the time he had lost, but he still managed to be five minutes later than he should have been. Spotting a red haired teen up ahead he ran faster until he was right in front of him. He doubled over, placing his hands on his knees as he gasped, trying to regain his breath.

"You're late, Deidara." The boy's voice and light brown eyes were full of boredom. His slightly pale skin stood in contrast to his Akatsuki hoodie, which was partially unzipped to show a peek at the boy's favorite red scorpion shirt.

"Sorry… Sasori… Danna," The blond gasped out in between breaths. He had to wait a few more moments until his breathing evened out before he could explain further, "I got caught up at home, un." He had quickly settled on the decision to hide his mark from his friends. He was pretty sure he couldn't take the pitying glances they'd throw his way, or the bitter sweet favors they'd do for him. It was unnatural and unnerving. Knowing that they wouldn't have done the favors before was enough. It was proof he didn't want that the end was near.

"What the hell could keep you caught up at your shitty apartment?" Deidara turned to see his silver haired, potty-mouthed friend approaching. His hoodie was fully unzipped and showed off the dark grey shirt he wore with the words, 'Jashin-sama will smite you all' in red, complemented by the silver pendant of Jashin's symbol. Jashin was the boy's god and pretty much the only thing he loved, besides the blood sacrifices the god demanded. The boy was twisted as hell but could be a great friend when he wanted to be.

Behind him was their friend Kakuzu with his usual black bandanna around his mouth and his hands in his hoodie pocket. Almost all of his dark tan skin was covered by a piece of clothing, besides his messy dark brown hair and the top portion of his face. There his solid green eyes drew all the attention. The boy had always covered up excessively, preferring to wear his bandanna and all even in hundred degree weather. No one knew why and the larger teen was too intimidating to ask, so everyone just took it as fact and moved on.

"Hey Hidan, Kakuzu." He nodded to each respectively. He got a nod back from Kakuzu and a 'whatever, bitch' from Hidan. "Where's Itachi and Kisame, un? They're usually here before us."

Itachi was one of the richer kids in their group. His family was well known throughout the country and had control over the nation's police force. His father was in charge of it all. That is, until his whole clan died in a fire. Itachi, his brother Sasuke, and their cousin Tobi were the only ones left now, leaving Itachi as their guardian. Unfortunately, Itachi had just come down with some mysterious illness that no one knew what to do with. He had always been sickly pale and fragile but this illness made those features even worse, adding a terrible cough into the mix. Deidara, and the rest of Akatsuki, figured that his mark wasn't far off from revealing itself.

Kisame, on the other hand, was the most athletic of the group. He was the football and swim team captain and a soccer champion. He was pale even though he spent most his time in the sun, and whenever he wore blue, his skin would take on a slight blue hue. This excited the jock to no end so he chose to wear blue as often as he could for this effect and even went so far as to dye his spiked hair a dark blue. He was the second most popular of the group with only Itachi being ahead of him by a few fans. You just can't win a popularity contest over an Uchiha.

However, much to the dismay of their many fan girls, both of them were happily taken by each other. In fact, they are also considered the most popular couple in Konaha High. Even their broken-hearted fan girls had to agree that they were perfect together. When they were just with friends, they were very 'lovey-dovey' as Deidara liked to say and Hidan had a great time making gaging noises whenever they chose to break the no PDA rule in front of him.

"They're in the bathroom," Sasori began to explain, "Apparently Itachi's gotten the call from death we all knew it was coming."

Deidara stared blankly at the group, taking in each one of their solemn faces. He knew there was no doubt then and he was sure all color drained from his face. "When did he get it, un?"

"Last night. It hadn't been there in the morning but I noticed it before I got into bed." Itachi announced as he and Kisame made their way to the huddled group.

Kisame's arm was draped over Itachi's shoulders. His hoodie was unzipped and revealed his plain dark blue shirt, giving him that small touch of a blue hue he loved so much.

Itachi had clearly been crying. That much could be told from his abnormally puffy, blood-shot coal black eyes. His hoodie looked as if it had been tossed about in a hurricane, a huge sign that something was wrong with the usually clean-cut Uchiha.

Deidara scanned his friend's body for any sign of the mark. Itachi caught his looks and pulled up the sleeve of his right arm to reveal an X in the crease of his elbow. "I want to keep this a secret from Sasuke. He doesn't need any more worry or stress after last year."

Sasuke was Itachi's younger brother. He was still in middle school but was already the genius of his class, just like his big brother. Last year around New Years, all of the twenty Uchihas living at the mansion they shared had received the cursed mark, except the three youngest members. Two days later when they were at school, a fire was set in their home and since most of the clan worked from home the three younger ones were the only ones out of the house. No one survived, leaving Itachi in charge of his younger family members since he was the oldest by a year being only 16 at the time.

It was around then when Itachi's illness had first shown up. His vision had begun to get blurry off and on, and if he strains himself too much, he'll lapse into an uncontrollable coughing fit. It has gotten to the point where he's become partially blind and must be lead along by Kisame once it became dark. Not to mention now he can hardly walk to his classes without becoming short of breath. Yet through it all, he's still tried to hide his weakening body from his brother, with minimum success. The boy was smart but for the sake of his brother, played along for the time being.

Deidara watched as the pitying glances began, along with a muttering of, "If you need anything, just ask" from Konan, which everyone nodded to, to show they'd be there too. He didn't understand how both Itachi and Pein could handle them so well. It would hurt him immensely to be on the receiving end of those looks. He hated pity. He got enough of it when he was ten and his mother died right before his father left the country. He didn't need any more.

The five minute bell rang out over the crowd of students and their whole group turned their attention to the street. This was the tensest moment of the day for Akatsuki. Pein and Konan were usually dropped off within the next few minutes by their foster father, Jiraiya. Every day they waited, fearing that their leader wouldn't step out of the car and join them with his normal cheery grin as they plotted for a changed world. Today was no different.

Once they spotted the cherry red mustang, they held their breath until two figures emerged from within. The first one to step out was Konan. Her blue hair done up in its usual bun, held together by a white origami rose clip she had made herself. Her piercing under her lip caught the light as she stood out of the car and smiled at her surrounding friends. Her hoodie was zipped up to the collar and complemented the black and red checkerboard skirt she wore over her black skinny jeans. Her long black leather heeled boots clicked as she stepped aside for the boy behind her.

Pein stepped onto the concrete sidewalk with a huge grin plastered on his face. It was intimidating and relieving all at the same time. Even with his many piercings he could still manage a kind appearance while keeping up his badass one. His hoody was zipped up most of the way and had his name embroidered on the front, something all of Akatsuki unanimously decided should go to their leader. The death mark sat proudly on his cheek for all to see, for he believed it added character.

Pein laughed at the looks on his friends' faces. "Every time I step out of that car, it's like you've all seen a ghost or something." The rest of the group ended up joining his contagious laughter. After calming down they all greeted Jiraiya who in turn told them all to behave today and sped off for the teacher parking lot. The man was also one of the literature teachers but mostly taught the ninth grade classes.

Seeming as if out of nowhere, Deidara was tackled to the ground by a masked teenager screaming, "Senpai!" at the top of his lungs. The boy's mask covered his whole face in an orange swirl. How he had managed to get the school to allow him to wear it, no one knew, or wanted to know for that matter. His hoodie was half unzipped out of a pure ADD moment to glomp his senpai. Being an Uchiha he automatically had all the good looks of his clan, what could be seen anyways, though he was way too childish for anyone to stand.

"Tobi!" "Calm down damn it!" The two different voices came from the last member of their group of friends. He had neon green hair and a very uncanny complexion. One side of him was really tan yet it slowly faded to an almost white pale. His split personalities often fought with each other as both were nearly opposites, earning the nicknames Whitey and Blackie on account of their personalities.

"Zetsu! Get him off, un!" Deidara wined as he was crushed by one of Tobi's overbearing hugs. The green haired boy presided to grab onto the boy and pried him off of the blond with minimal ease. The two toned teen were about the only people who could do that without Tobi going completely nuts. Deidara picked himself off the ground and dusted off his black jeans. "Thank you." He added, in a tad bit snippy tone.

"Welcome," Whitey replied with and instant remark from Blackie afterwards, "But we won't do it again!"

"At least not today," Konan added with a giggle which all of the Akatsuki members joined in on, including both halves of Zetsu. For now, the world was right. Pein was still with them and Tobi was still a pain in the ass. No, for now it was like nothing had changed, and that was exactly how Deidara wished it to stay. However, he was well aware that this was only temporary.

Once the laughter had died down, everyone turned to their leader and Kisame spoke for all, "So, boss. What's on the agenda for today?"

Pein glanced at each of his friends and smiled brightly. "We're changing the world, of course-" He was interrupted by the tardy bell, followed by a few choice words from certain members. "After Algebra!" He finished as he dashed off towards his class, laughing the whole way.

The rest of Akatsuki headed off for their respective classes. Each laughing in the moment, forgetting all about the death marks on their friends, and themselves, if only for that moment. This was one way that they have planned to change the world.

Just by adding a little more laughter.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is pretty boring but needed in order to see the background society and governmental stuff. So just bare with me for a bit here...

Kisame walked hand in hand with Itachi into the revolving glass doors of the Death Registration Bureau, DRB for short. The government requires that once the X appears on your body, you must register to the list within a week so that the community can be prepared, especially if you aren't financially sound. In other words, they apparently want a heads up so you're death won't be a finical burden on the government, since, that would mean they would have to pay for most of your plot in the ground.

The government was responsible for having the necessary preparations all set up. They wrote most of the obituary, had the tomb stone and burial site ready, along with notifying the funeral home of an upcoming gathering. It was a horrid thought, that the government took care of all of this, but it was one established long ago for some unknown reason; therefore, for the sake of tradition, it was still done today.

As they entered the two story building, Kisame squeezed his boyfriend's hand. The lobby was colored by shades of beige and a dark navy blue. There where groups of two cushioned chairs and one couch across the floor. At the back of the room was a dark wooden desk with a woman sitting behind it.

Itachi paused before continuing forward to the desk with his head held high. Once at the desk, he cleared his throat, making the strawberry blond woman look up with a smile plastered on her face. She gazed at Itachi through hazel eyes, hidden behind bright red framed glasses. "Are you here to register, pay for services, or to collect someone's will?" When the Uchiha muttered a quiet but audible 'to register', the receptionist looked surprised. "Oh, well, give me your name and you can have a seat in the lobby."

"Uchiha Itachi."

The receptionist looked at the boy with understanding then before quickly returning her attention to the computer in front of her. After a moment of just her clicking keys she looked up and plastered on her smile once more and told them, "Alright, you're all set. Have a seat and you'll be called back momentarily."

Itachi murmured another quiet phrase of thanks before following Kisame to a cluster of seats, sitting closer to his boyfriend then he normally would. They were the only people in the lobby since they chose to get this out of the way early this Saturday morning, so Itachi didn't mind letting loose his needy side. Besides, he was way too anxious to care at the moment.

"How're you feeling?" Kisame asked as Itachi rested his head on his shoulder.

"Tired… Just… Tired."

Kisame nodded and replied, "Well after we're done here we'll go home and take a nap. That sound okay?"

"Hn." Itachi had let Kisame move into the Uchiha's mansion after the blue man's parents died in a car accident. Luckily the jock got along perfectly with Sasuke and Tobi and even though he kept the small house his parents owned, he never actually used it for more than storage or a hang out place.

After about five minutes of relaxed silence, another person walked in alone through the revolving doors. This person had a light lime green hoodie on with the hood pulled up over his head. There was also a familiar pair of worn out lime green converse covering the bottom of his dark green skinny jeans. Itachi stood with Kisame as the blue man called out to the person slowly making their way to the reception desk, "Deidara?"

The figure froze and for a moment, didn't do anything. After a full minute of just wishing to disappear, he let out a deep sigh before pulling off his hood to reveal long blond hair and sad blue eyes. "Yeah, un," he mumbled.

Kisame looked at the blond with disbelief. "When did you…"

Deidara closed his eyes as he responded, "Yesterday, un. I didn't want you all to know."

"Why? It's not like we'd kick you to the curb. I mean, we didn't with Pein or Itachi…"

Deidara's eyes snapped open and he gave the jock a teary eyed glare. "Because you all would have treated me differently, un! I couldn't take the pitying looks and special favors you'd all do for me like you do with Pein and Itachi. I just… I can't handle that… I can't…" By the end of the blonde's short rant, his voice had broken and the tears were flowing freely down his face. His black panted nails of his right hand dug into the front of his hoodie jacket above his heart as he lowered his head, hoping his bangs would hide his face.

Kisame was speechless as he watched the normally confident teen break down. He had no idea what to do in this situation. He was use to Itachi by now but Deidara was a whole different person.

Surprisingly, it was Itachi who moved to comfort the crying blond. He stood in front of the boy and embraced him in a tight hug. The blond tensed in his shock. It took Deidara a moment to relax and grab onto the Uchiha tightly and continue to sob on his shoulder.

When Deidara finally looked back up, Kisame got a glance of the younger boy's face. It was streaked with the blonde's black eyeliner and his eyes were puffed and red. Pity consumed Kisame but he quickly pushed the emotion down, remembering why Deidara was currently in this state.

Itachi ushered Deidara into the restrooms to wash up, leaving Kisame standing in the lobby awkwardly. He glanced over at the receptionist who was wiping her eyes with a tissue, evidence that she'd been observing his blond friend's melt down. At least he now knew she wasn't heartless, plus, her fake smiles got a lot less annoying once he realized they were also for herself in a way. She has to be a strong woman.

As soon as the other two walked out of the restrooms, a man came out of the elevators beside the main desk. "Uchiha Itachi?" he called. Kisame sent a glance to his boyfriend and their friend. Deidara's face was no longer smeared but his eyes were still puffy and his nose looked like it had started to run. Itachi motioned for him to follow and all three met in front of the man.

He had a standard white dress shirt and black tie outfit on and even more common short black hair. He glanced at the three of them through thick black frames. He opened his mouth to speak but before he could say anything, Itachi coolly interrupted him.

"My friend here is also registering today. I'm sure you will have no problem with him and my boyfriend staying in the room with me, or with us staying with him." Itachi's coal black eyes held no room for any arguments so the man had no choice but to bring all three in the elevator with him.

Once on the second floor, they turned right out of the elevator and were lead through a dimly lit hallway lined with fake plants. They followed the man to the last room on the left in which he immediately walked to the chair behind the large light brown wooden desk with a gold name plate stating 'Himuro Kaname'. As he typed on the computer placed to the right of the desk, Kisame let Itachi and Deidara take the two open seats.

"Alright, since this is actually Mr. Uchiha's appointment I'll start with him." When he got a nod of approval from the dark haired teen, he continued, "How old are you?"

"Sixteen. I'm in my second year at Konaha High School."

"And how long have you had the mark?"

"Two days. I found it Thursday night while I was heading to bed."

The plain man nodded, "Alright, and how many members are currently in your family."

"Two. My younger brother and my cousin both of whom live with me."

"Are you currently in a relationship?"

Kisame squeezed this boyfriend's shoulder as the Uchiha replied, "Yes, I believe I already told you that Kisame here is my boyfriend."

The man looked up and nodded, "Okay then, do you have enough money for funeral and burial costs?"

Kisame almost punched the man in the face for being so brutally blunt but Itachi stopped him by placing his hand on the others before saying sharply, "Yes, as a matter of fact I do."

Mr. Himuro, as they guessed was the man's name, gave another nod before asking, "And where are you planning on resting?"

Once again Kisame had to be held back by Itachi, this time words halfway through his lips when Itachi interrupted, "Lot 116, The Akatsuki Cemetery." Pein had wanted them to all be buried together since none of them really had any family they were close to; however, he assured each one of them that it was totally up to them to decide. Itachi liked the idea and chose to pay for a lot with his inheritance from his clan.

"Ah, alright then, I just need what you wish to say on your tombstone and we're all set."

"Shouldn't the family get to choose this?" Kisame asked through clenched teeth.

"Generally, but seeing that Mr. Uchiha here is the oldest amongst the three of his surviving family members, he gets first choice."

Itachi glared at the man then, "I leave that decision up to my family when the time comes."

The man finished typing before looking up and asking, "And who is the other one here to register?"

Deidara cleared his throat before responding, "I am, un."

"Name?"

"Iwa Deidara, un," Deidara's voice was still shaking but his face had a determined look to it.

"How old are you?"

"Sixteen. The same as Itachi, un."

"Alright and when did your mark appear?"

"Yesterday," Deidara's face dropped a little as he remembered. "I found it when I was getting ready for school, un."

The man nodded, never looking up from his typing, "And how many members are in your family?"

"None."

At this the man looked up at the blonde's crestfallen face before quickly looking back down. "Are you in a relationship currently?"

"No, un."

"And do you have the resources to pay for the funeral and burial?"

Deidara closed his eyes for a moment, listening to Itachi trying to quietly calm Kisame down again. "No, I do not, un." He was basically living of his landlord's generosity. He had told Deidara that as long as he got good grades in school and promised to go to college after he graduated, he would let the teen stay there for free. The old man even bought him groceries whenever Deidara couldn't come up with enough money through the odd jobs he picked up from the neighbors.

Himuro looked up again, pausing his typing to clarify what their paying for a funeral would entail, "Alright then, we will assure that you have a decent funeral and burial, but I must warn you that it won't be all that grand and-"

"The Uchiha family will pay for him," Itachi interrupted in a cold, calculating tone. Before Deidara could say anything, the pale man added, "I will not let my friend have anything less than he deserves."

The plain man nodded again and went back to typing, "I will need the head of your family at the time to sign some documents when it happens, so you will need to schedule another appointment before the funeral date." Itachi nodded and the man continued, "Now, do you know where your body will be resting?"

This time, Kisame couldn't be held back by his boyfriend as he slammed his hands on the desk. "Alright bud, you are grating on my last nerves. How could you possibly be so cruel! These are your clients and you're practically rubbing the fact that they are going to die in their faces!"

"I'm sorry you feel this way but-"

"You're sorry that I feel this way? Shouldn't you apologize to them for screwing with them?" Kisame was practically leaning into the man's personal space, yet, Himuro didn't even flinch.

With his face still monotone, he replied, "I think it's time you stepped outside sir."

Kisame stood back up and glared, "Yeah, perhaps it is." He then turned and walked out the door, slamming it shut once he was in the hall.

"Now then-"

"The fuck man, un!" Deidara growled as he stood, "Let me answer your god damn questions so I can follow him out of here. I will be buried in lot 116, The Akatsuki Cemetery, and I will let my family decide as to what goes on my tombstone, un. Oh and before you ask, yeah I said I have no relatives but my friends are my family and they get to choose what I am remembered by. Now good day and good riddance, un." Deidara them promptly stomped out of the room, slamming the door just as Kisame did.

Itachi watched as the man stared at the door in shock. "You know," he spoke as he stood to follow his friend and boyfriend. "If they had just held on a few more seconds, I would have been the one to blow up on you." He moved through the door, only stopping to add, "And I wouldn't have held back my hand," before closing the door with an audible thud, though not as loud as his friend's slams.

The Uchiha teen made his way back down to the lobby, finding both Kisame and Deidara ranting by the door. "Let's get out of here," He declared, leading the way out the door.

Deidara followed, still seething from the meeting. "What kind of god forsaken government is running this damn country? They're all fuckin morons who wouldn't know compassion if it fuckin bit them square in the ass, un."

Kisame muttered in agreement and Itachi sighed. "There's nothing we can do about it."

"Not yet at least," The blond finally seemed to be starting to calm down, even if it was only a little. "Once we get set to changing this world, I say we burn down that fuckin building with that bastard in it, un." Or maybe not.

"You're starting to sound like Hidan." Itachi stated in a dead serious voice, "If you start talking about Jashin as well I might have to hit you."

Deidara was silent for a moment but soon busted up laughing, quickly being followed by Kisame and Itachi. Their laughing spell only stopped when Itachi's laughter turned into another coughing fit and they had to find the nearest bench to sit down.

After Itachi had stopped coughing, Deidara looked up at the sky and asked, "Now what, un?"

"I don't know," Itachi replied, finally regaining his breath. "All of Akatsuki is meeting at Kisame's house at five but it's only noon."

"Do you guys wanna just come over now?" Kisame asked. "I'm sure I still have a few video games I left there and we could order pizza until everyone else shows up."

Both teens nodded in agreement before setting off towards Kisame's house in silence, stopping every once and a while so that Itachi could rest. By the time they reached the jock's old house Itachi looked ready to pass out. Kisame took him up to one of the rooms to lie down and then went to meet Deidara in the living room with a bunch of games under his arm. Without speaking they started up one of them and got lost in the world inside it.

~xXx~

"Alright, alright!" Pein stood smiling in front of the TV, surrounded by all his friends. The all quieted down as their leader continued, "Let this meeting begin!"

"About damn time," Hidan muttered. They had all arrived at five like Pein requested but had sat around listening to Itachi's tale until six. The Uchiha had been reciting what had happened at the appointment earlier, leaving out Deidara per request from the blond.

Ignoring Hidan, Pein continued, "So, to start this meeting off, does anyone have any ideas?" At this Tobi raised his hand, waving it in the air frantically. Pein laughed, "Yes, Tobi?"

"We could tell stories to everyone!" Tobi's voice was full of excitement and everyone was sure they could feel the stupid smile radiating off of the boy.

"And what the hell do you think that would accomplish?" Hidan asked, eye twitching in annoyance.

Tobi hung his head at this and mumbled, "I dunno…. Just thought it would be fun."

Hidan rolled his eyes as Pein spoke, "As nice of an idea that that is, Tobi, I think we'll pass on that for now. Any other ideas?" When no one spoke up for another minute he continued, "Well I have one I'd like to throw at ya. So, you all know the annual assembly about rules, right?" Pein waited until they all acknowledged him with a nod or some form of 'yes' before going on, "We'll let's say we make it fun, ne?"

"And how exactly are we to do that?" Sasori asked in his normal bored tone.

"Ah, glad you asked!" Pein smiled, "Well here's my plan, but feel free to add in your own suggestions here and there. We need to make this plan perfect as it is Akatsuki's first big movement in our war against despair!" He then proceeded to inform them on what he had planned for Monday's assembly.

The Akatsuki spent the next two hours discussing Pein's plan, adding details here and there to make it better, only stopping to order a few pizzas and have them delivered. Once they felt their plan was as good as it was going to get, they adjourned the meeting each heading off to their homes, awaiting Monday with pure excitement.


	3. Chapter 3

"Get out of the fuckin' way asshole!"

This was the only warning that a poor first year received before he was kicked out of the way by a silver haired teenager. Hidan and Kakuzu were carrying a plastic tub through the halls of Konaha High on their way to the gym. The tub had a lid on it so that no one could see in what was in it, though the contents had to be heavy for both of them to be carrying it together.

"Language, Hidan," Kakuzu huffed.

"Tch, whatever bitch," Hidan rolled his eyes as they reached the gym and he was forced to use his back to open the door.

Once inside the gym, they made their way to the bleachers where the rest of Akatsuki was gathered. Nineteen other tubs just like theirs were set on the ground in front of the bleachers. Setting their tub down by the others, Hidan and Kakuzu joined their friends.

"What now?" Sasori asked now that all of them were finally in the gym. Pein, Konan, Tobi and Kisame were put in charge of setting up for the assembly that would be happening that afternoon. This being the perfect opportunity, they had the rest of Akatsuki help them to make this 'the best assembly ever'.

"Konan and I are going to set up the audio and the projector while the rest of you set these up throughout the bleachers," Pein explained.

He and Konan then set to getting the projector and screen out of the supply room off to the side while the rest of them started placing the tubs in the bleachers. It took them half an hour to get all of the gym set up and ready. By the time they were done, the tubs had been strategically placed so that they were spaced evenly, wedged in between one bleacher and the one below it so that it was hidden a bit. The lids were off to show that they were full of fat water balloons. A note was on top of them reading, 'Do not use these until at least five have been thrown at the principal. Then feel free to have fun! ~Akatsuki … P.S. If you even so much as think about throwing one prematurely, Hidan will have our permission to rip into you'.

Pein and Konan had only got to set up the screen and projector before the others finished. They all then helped to set up the audio and table that the principal used for her props. Once finished they sat back to overlook their work. With approving nods they turned from the gym to get ready for class.

They walked through the gray brick hallways, lined with large posters about the rules, on their way to the locker area on the other side of the school by the entrance. They passed groups of students looking bored and others that were pretty much asleep on their feet. It was all eerily quiet up until they reached the beige lockers, with no one wanting to disrupt what seemed to be an enchantment that was casted upon the school.

"Now what?" Tobi asked as they reached Pein's locker first.

Their leader set to opening up his locker and answered, "We just have to wait till the assembly. Then Deidara and Hidan take over."

"Hell yeah!" Hidan smiled, as well as the blond standing next to him.

"Until then, enjoy class." He looked up, having finally opened his locker and smiled at his friends. They each took their leave then, heading to gather all they'll need for class.

~x~

At twelve thirty in the afternoon, students filed into the gym like zombies. The first assembly of the year wasn't really known for being all that fun, therefore, most dread it. Almost all the students end up staring into space wishing they were somewhere else, while the others occupy themselves with other things like texting and playing card games.

Today however, they immediately noticed the difference. The balloons were looked on with excitement. A few kids almost took some of them, but, after reading the note they recoiled to just stare at them longingly. Hidan was one person that no one wanted to get on the bad side of. When they said he'll rip into you, he damn will rip into you, literally.

Luckily, none of the teachers seemed too excited about this assembly either as none of them entered the gym until they absolutely had to. Even Tsunade, the principal, hesitated to start the assembly until the exactly twelve forty-five. Therefore, the balloons passed by unnoticed by any faculty.

The Akatsuki members took their separate places in the stands. Konan and Pein sat in the front, smiling brightly as Tsunade started up the projector. Itachi and Kisame were also in the front; however, they were off to the far right of the bleachers by the back wall with the Uchiha leaning against Kisame for support. Deidara and Hidan were on either side of the bleachers towards the middle. They each had a water balloon tub beside them and identical evil grins on their faces. Zetsu, Tobi, Kakuzu and Sasori were in the far back left corner, most of them hoping to stay out of the line of fire. Tobi actually just wanted a good vantage point for his own case of balloons in front of him.

As Tsunade began to start by explaining the picture of the poster on the projector – the exact same one that lined the halls – the students were holding their breath, waiting. After five minutes of Tsunade talking about no cell phones or any other electronic devices, a red balloon made an arch through the air, landing exactly on top of the principal's head.

The gym broke out in laughter as the students closer to Deidara congratulated his aim quietly. Tsunade however, roared in anger, "Who threw that?"

As she was looking in the general direction that the balloon came from, another lime green one made its way through the air from the opposite side. This one, thrown by Hidan, missed its mark, but landed on the blond woman's left shoulder. More laughter broke out as she abruptly turned to look for the perpetrator.

Deidara threw another balloon, this time a nice plump light blue one, hitting her square in the buttocks. The students were now practically rolling with laughter as Tsunade became livid. "I demand to know who is throwing these balloons, this instant," She demanded, stressing the last two words sharply. She was scanning the room now, hoping to catch whoever was sabotaging her lecture.

Her downfall came when she paused to look at Tobi, who was in a nonstop giggle fit even after everyone else had calmed down. Hidan quickly tossed a purple balloon, hitting her in her left ear. She turned her head sharply to glare in his general direction while all the students held their breath, knowing that this next balloon reached number five.

With Deidara's carefully aimed orange balloon, hitting Tsunade in her rather large chest, all-out war began. Students jumped up before Tsunade could say any more and started to pelt her, and the other teachers, with water balloons of all colors of the rainbow. The teachers fled and with one poorly aimed yellow balloon, the students turned on each other.

Balloons flew through the air, aimed at friends and total strangers. Some students took to abandoning the bleachers to try to avoid attacks, only to become a primary target to the more expert throwers. One person seemed to make it their personal mission to make sure everyone in the room at least got a little wet.

The student body wasn't a large one, but they still managed to run out of balloons after five full minutes of fighting. However, it was enough to soak most of them and put smiles on everyone's faces, even most of the teachers. Everyone, that is, except Tsunade. She stared out at the crowd, dripping with water. Her eyes took in the condition of the gym in one sweep. Balloon bits littered the stands, a few even branching out to scatter on the floor. The seats looked to become more of a lake than anything and her eyes caught some of the plastic bins that held the balloons.

Everyone was silent as Tsunade stepped towards one of the tubs. She reached into it and pulled out a soaked piece of paper. The ink had beensmeared by water, but some of the words on the note could still be read. "Would Hidan, Pein, Konan, Tobi and Kisame please step out onto the floor?" Her voice was calm, making it more menacing than when she was yelling moments earlier.

The ones whose names had been called made their way down to stand in front of Tsunade, facing the bleachers with smiles on their faces. They were each dripping wet, having been some of the more aggressive fighters. Tsunade glared at them as she interrogated them. "Were you the ones who organized this?"

"Yep," was the collective answer they all gave, smiles never leaving their faces.

Tsunade nodded and sighed, "I want you all to stay after school to clean this mess up. Then, all of you will serve detention for a week, starting Wednesday. Understand?" When they all nodded she continued, now addressing the crowd, "I want all of you to head home now. There's no use continuing this while you're all soaking wet."

Everyone cheered as they practically ran down the bleachers. The rest of Akatsuki went with them, planning on coming back after Tsunade left their friends to their work. Tsunade turned back to the five students responsible to give them more instructions. "You five will go change into your gym uniforms and then start cleaning." Hidan raised his hand, causing Tsunade to sigh, "Yes?"

"What if we have a change of clothes in our lockers?"

"Of course you do," The blond woman shook her head, "Go ahead and change into them then, but I want you back here in ten minutes." She watched them run out of the now empty gym, determined to wait the ten minutes until they got back. She was slightly confused, however. This bunch had always been a bit rowdy but never to this extreme.

Hidan was the worst out of their group, only getting in trouble for fights and bringing knives into school. If it wasn't for that boy's religion, he probably would be kicked out of school by now. She wouldn't be surprised if this was just his doing, but Konan and Pein hardly ever caused trouble. Kisame and Tobi never did, Tobi actually being more of a teacher's pet than anything.

This was new, so she had let them off light. She just hoped it was the last of their insubordinate behavior; though, she wouldn't keep her hopes up for Hidan.

~x~

It was now one fifty and Tsunade had finally left them alone on the condition that Hidan was kept a close eye on. After she was gone, Tobi ran to the side doors that lead to one end of the locker rooms to let the rest of Akatsuki know that she was gone.

Everyone had changed and was ready to help their friends clean. Pein had also mentioned that this would lead to another meeting on what was to be planned next. They had ran to Deidara's house to change into their dry clothes and to grab a few things that they would need. The main thing being the blonde's iPod docking station.

Deidara placed the player on the already cleaned table and began to set it up. Once Don't Trust Me started coming out of the speakers, Deidara returned to his group of friends and grabbed a trash bag from Kisame. Pein laughed at the song before addressing his friends, "Alright guys! Let's get this place clean," He smiled as they all turned to start working on either picking up balloon pieces or mopping up the puddles. "While you're at it, feel free to shout out any ideas!"

After a few moments of just dancing to music as they cleaned, Hidan shouted over the song currently playing to announce his idea, "Hey, what about a daily broadcast about Tsunade's underwear?"

Half of them laughed while the others rolled their eyes. "Only you would think of that, un," Deidara gasped out, being one of them suffering from a more brutal laughing fit.

Pein, who had just smiled, nodded in agreement, "But that could be exactly what we need to do. We'll try it tomorrow when I do the morning announcements."

Everyone went back to work for the next ten minutes, only really participating in casual conversations. When they were just about done, Sasori spoke up, "What about painting the school?"

Pausing in his work to ponder this, Pein asked, "What do you mean exactly?"

Sasori propped the broom he was using up against the wall beside him. "Like, if Deidara and I were to sneak in here after everyone left and painted a few murals or put up a few posters?"

Pein thought on this for a short moment and then smiled at the red head, "Alright, I like it. You and Deidara should get together after this then to go over what exactly you're going to do; though, I'd personally like to see both."

Sasori nodded, sending his gaze to the other artist of the group, "Your place?"

"Sure, un," Deidara nodded, heart fluttering a bit. He didn't understand it, but just chalked it up to getting to work on art with his Danna.

After five more minutes they had the whole gym back to normal. Stopping by their lockers on the way out, they collected books that they'd need and made their ways home. Jiraiya was there waiting for them, having stayed over to work on his lectures. He had a smile on his face as he greeted them, "That was brilliant! You guys are all geniuses."

They thanked him, each smiling at the praise. The Literature teacher offered each of them a ride, which only Zetsu, Itachi, Kisame and Tobi took. Kakuzu and Deidara's flats were nearby, with Sasori going to Deidara's, and Hidan's foster parents lived near Kakuzu. They waved as Jiraiya pulled away and then said their good-byes to each other before heading their separate ways.

~x~

Deidara unlocked his apartment, leading the way into the neat entrance way. Taking off his shoes, he moved his way into his home and called back to Sasori, "Do you want anything to eat or drink, un?"

Sasori shook his head before realizing the younger boy couldn't see him, "No, I'm alright." While Deidara was off doing whatever in the kitchen area, Sasori decided to take a look around. The apartment was only one bedroom so it was pretty small, but still decent for a high school student. There was a small futon in the room right inside the door, so he assumed that was the living room. What looked like a bathroom was branched off to the right with the bedroom branching off of that. The kitchen took up the top left corner farthest from the door with a wall separating it from the living room area.

Sasori moved to sit on the futon as Deidara came around the corner with a glass of water and a sandwich. "Sure you don't want anything, un?" He questioned as he sat cross-legged on the floor by the futon.

"I'm sure," His reply was followed by a slightly awkward silence. The two artists never interacted much outside of the group. It also didn't help that Sasori was naturally quiet and Deidara was naturally awkward around him for some reason.

"So Danna," Deidara interrupted the silence after finishing off his sandwich, "What were your plans exactly, un?"

Sasori glanced over at the blond as he spoke, "I was thinking maybe we could somehow get into the school after hours and bring some color to the halls. Maybe even some classrooms if we had time." As Sasori talked, he reached into his bag to grab his notebook and flipped to a blank page. "We could also buy or make some posters beforehand and put them up as well."

Deidara nodded as he watched the red head start drawing sketches of murals. "It's a good plan, even though true art is fleeting, un," He grinned, knowing this would earn a remark from his Danna.

He was right, as Sasori scoffed, "True art is eternal, brat. Get it right."

Deidara snickered but decided to let it drop for now, "Whatever you say Danna, un." They lapsed back into a more comfortable silence as Deidara watched Sasori draw. After a minute though, he broke the silence again, "What if we paint on the lockers too, un?"

Sasori looked up from his drawing to nod, "What would we paint on them?"

Deidara smiled, "Puppets, un?"

Sasori actually laughed, showing his approval, "Alright, puppets it is."

They debated back and forth for a while about the different murals, where they would go and what they would be and even about whether to buy posters or not. Eventually they settled on painting three murals, the boys and girls bathrooms, Tsunade's office and if they had time, the lockers. They agreed to make the posters as well so that they were each unique.

The two artists spent most of the night actually making the posters, excited that they could incorporate art into Pein's vision. They were hoping that maybe if they finished within the night, they could work on the school tomorrow night. So they ended up staying awake all night, putting final touches on everything at six a.m.

Deidara let Sasori borrow some of his clothes so the puppet master wouldn't need to wear his clothes from the day before, and then they headed off to school with their posters rolled up in their bags, eager to show their friends what they'd put together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Updating every two days didn't work out so I'm going to shoot for Fridays, and maybe a few updates in between if I remember.


	4. Chapter 4

Sasori and Deidara were the first of Akatsuki to arrive at school. In their excitement they had hurried and ended up being a half hour early, leaving them to wander the halls. The walked around, plotting what was going where and getting the image in their mind's eye.

The rest of Akatsuki arrived thirty minutes later, each looking forward to the morning announcements. Tobi was the first one to run up to Deidara, tackling him to the ground in his normal greeting. "Senpai!" Deidara was in such a good mood that instead of yelling at him to get off, he laughed.

"Hey guys, un." Once Tobi let go of him, he stood up and brushed off his back.

"Did you guys get any good planning in?" Pein asked.

"Oh yeah, un." Deidara smiled. "Tons!"

Sasori smiled too and pulled out the posters to show off while explaining what they were going to paint and where. Each of the Akatsuki members nodded their approval and smiled. This was going to be great.

The five minute bell rang, sending them all off towards their lockers and classrooms. Pein, however, headed to the room designated for announcements. It was a small room on the opposite side of the school, as the principal's office. Inside were a few book shelves holding equipment and tapes. A table was set up in front of the only windowed wall, which was facing the hallway, with the mic and a video system that was linked to every TV in the building for the Channel 1 broadcasts at the end of the day. The room was accessible to only a hand full of students with the rights to do the morning announcements. All other school wide broadcasts were done from Tsunade's office by the principal herself.

Pein had a large smirk plastered on his face as he sat in the broadcasting room. The last bell rang, making his smile spread as he started up the announcements. "Good morning, Konaha High," the pierced teen started in a cheery voice. "Today holds many firsts. The soccer team and football team beat both of their rivals in the first game of the year! Go you guys!

"Next, I would like to remind you all that this week is the last one you have to change schedules. Don't like your photography teacher? Hate the seat that you sit in Math? Realize choir's not your thing? Then switch before it's too late and you're stuck in misery!" Pein smiled. This was it!

"Finally we're starting a new segment today in the announcements! Let's just call it W.T.O.U.I.T.W.T. for short, and if any of you can guess what it means, see me at lunch!" Smiling like a fiend, Pein finished quickly with, "Today Tsunade is wearing a nice lacy white bra and matching panties!" He whistled, "Very nice! Well that's all for today! Have an uber awesome day!"

Laughs were echoing through the halls as Pein shut off the mic. He was laughing by himself as Tsunade herself busted into the room, and boy was she pissed. She glared at the boy as she lectured him, "What was that?" Her voice was shaking with anger.

Pain stood up smiling. "Well-"

"It was inappropriate is what it was." She interrupted. "Detention, Mr. Gama. For two weeks." She then stormed out of the tiny room. The sound of a crash echoed through the halls as she headed back to her office before she hit someone.

Pein had a laughing fit all the way to his first class.

~xXx~

Lunch was loud with people shouting across the cafeteria at Pein, telling him how great the new broadcast was. Many people came up to guess the name of the new segment with most being pretty accurate. Pein shared smiles with the rest of the group as they sat down at their usual table. Konan was the first one there, sitting next to Pein and planting a kiss on his lips. The two of them had been dating for nearly as long as Kisame and Itachi. Every time they showed their affections in public they received disgusted looks, most forgetting that they were both adopted and had no blood relation what so ever.

Itachi and Kisame followed Konan in taking a seat at the round table and pulling out their lunches from their bags. Then came a very sporadic Tobi, being told to calm down by the black half of Zetsu's personality. Both had bought their lunches before joining the group. Hidan came into the room holding a pink slip in his hand and slumped into the seat next to Konan, mumbling something about the schools 'fucking dumbass rules'. Deidara walked over, holding two lunch trays as Sasori was next to him, digging through his bag. They sat down as the red head pulled out their plans from the night before to go over one last time.

"So boss," Sasori started, "When are we planning to paint the school?"

Pein thought for a moment, "Well, I walked by Tsunade's office on my way here and heard some rather angry noises." He paused. "Let's give her some time to cool off."

"So, tonight?" Hidan offered, having sat up and apparently giving up sulking for the moment.

The orange haired teen smiled wickedly, "Yeah, tonight."

Chuckles circulated the table as the last member of Akatsuki quietly took his seat next to Hidan. Kakuzu was silent and had an oddly thoughtful expression on his face. He had actually bought a lunch to the surprise of all his friends. The tan boy was known to despise spending money in any way and generally packed a lunch from home with cheap discount food.

"Oi," Hidan said, punctuating it with a punch to the shoulder, "What the fuck is up with you?" He was the most in tune with Kakuzu's emotions as they spent most of their time fighting each other. It was no wonder he was the first to notice the odd behavior.

When Kakuzu just rubbed his shoulder where Hidan had hit him and mumbled, "nothin'", the rest of Akatsuki were put on edge. By now there was usually a large verbal, if not physical, fight breaking out between the two. Worried, questioning looks were shot at the teen which were noticed by the receiver. In response the boy sighed, pulled down his ever present handkerchief, opened his mouth, and stuck out his tongue.

The first thing noticed by the group was the corners of his mouth which were extended by large stitched scars nearly up to his ears. Most of them had seen these marks before and knew that the reason he kept them covered up was because of the many others covering his body. What drew their attention, however, was the dark purple X covering the stitched teen's tongue.

Silence over took the table at this realization. A fourth member had gained the mark, though he was the third one to most of Akatsuki as only Itachi and Kisame knew of Deidara's mark over his heart. Pein and Itachi looked at Kakuzu in understanding after the initial shock wore off.

"I'm not worried about it." Kakuzu announced after two whole minutes of silence and thoughts drifting to the marks on Pein's cheek and Itachi's inner elbow. "I've decided not to let this get to me." The normally stern teen's voice was a bit off, giving the impression that despite his words, he was still a bit upset. He took his bandana off completely then, shocking them all once more. "I'm also not going to hide these anymore."

The group fell into silence again. This time it was Hidan who interrupted the silence by lightly punching Kakuzu in the shoulder again, saying, "Good for you, Kuzu," in a small voice. The rest of Akatsuki echoed the Jashinist in quiet voices causing Kakuzu to laugh at the tension.

"It's like I freakin' died already," he explained, "I mean, even Hidan is acting all depressed."

At this the table broke out in real laughter. Hidan's being the loudest as he exclaimed, "Shut the fuck up!"

The conversation was then taken over by plans for the school's make over. After hearing the plans about the puppet lockers, Pein lit up. "You guys should defiantly do that to them all."

"Every one?" Sasori asked. When their leader nodded he added, "I'm not sure we'll have time to paint four hundred some lockers three murals, the boys and girls bathrooms, and Tsunade's office in one night."

"That's suicide, un," Deidara added.

"So do them over a series of days." Pein shrugged. "Let them get some excitement over where the puppets show up and wonder who's locker is next. It'll be a fun surprise every morning."

The two artists shared a look before smiling and nodding to the idea. "Sounds like fun, un!" Deidara laughed.

The bell rang then, sending them back to three more hours of boring lectures.

~xXx~

The sun hung low in the sky as two figures made their way to the back of the high school. The back door leading into the gym was propped open slightly by a small board wedged in between the door frame and door itself. Deidara reached the door first, opening it for the red head behind him who was carrying two large bags. "Remind me why I'm carrying both of our bags again?" He huffed once they were safely inside the gym.

Deidara smiled and shrugged. "'Cause ya love me, un," he offered.

Sasori rolled his eyes as they made their way through the halls to their first mural site, the cafeteria, without worrying about the surveillance system. Tobi, as childish as he could be, was actually an expert lock picker. He had entered the school after everyone left and erased the footage from that afternoon and shut the system down. That way, it would just look like a malfunction during the day.

Sasori set the bags on the floor and began to rummage through his. He stood back up and shoved twenty of their posters into Deidara's arms. "Go put these up while I work on this mural, brat."

Deidara laughed, "Sure, Danna."

While the blond set about finding places to put up the posters, Sasori got to work. He first took down the rules posters and then wiped the wall down to make sure it was clean. Once that was done he took out a pencil and began to draw out the large mural, giving it a brief outline so there was no room for mistakes. He finished the rough outline just as Deidara came bounding back to him.

"The posters have been posted, un!" He announced with a giggle.

Sasori rolled his eyes at the blonds humor but smiled all the same. "Take your bag and go work on the mural in the math and science hallway then."

Deidara let out a long, excited "Yes," before grabbing up his stuff and hurrying to the math hallway. He had been wanting to do this one as it had mostly his ideas in it. They worked on their murals for two hours, shouting back and forth through the empty school to see how the other was progressing. Finally Deidara had his finished and packed up his stuff to meet back up with Sasori.

The red head's mural was almost finished when the blond returned. "Man, you're slow, un," Deidara snickered.

"True art takes time, brat," Sasori huffed.

"If you're a professional artist, you should be able to create your works fast, un." Deidara threw back.

"Whatever," Sasori replied, now having finished the mural and stepping back to observe his work.

"I'm gonna work on the music one," Deidara announced, "Then I'll do the girl's bathroom, un."

Sasori nodded, "And I'll work on Tsunade's office and the boy's bathroom."

They split up again then, each working for another four hours. Deidara had finished his two murals after three hours and a half. He met back up with the puppet master after that and helped him with the final touches on the boy's bathroom.

Afterwards they sat in the cafeteria, snacking on a few cereal bars Deidara had packed. It was already one thirty in the morning and the boys were feeling the weight of not sleeping for over twenty four hours.

"We just have the puppets left right, un?" Deidara asked with a yawn.

Sasori nodded. "I figure we'll just do about ten of them tonight. We can do more next week."

Deidara nodded, resting his head heavily on his hand. "I'm so tired, un."

Sasori chuckled, "Me too but we're almost done."

The blond let out a noise that sounded like he was being strangled, "I don't think I'm gonna make it to school tomorrow at this point."

"Come on, sleepy," Sasori joked, "Just ten more paintings to do."

They headed back into the hall and mapped out the lockers they wanted to paint. They ended up choosing three of the first years, four of the second years, and three of the third years with one of the lockers being Kakuzu's.

An hour and thirty minutes later, nine of the puppets were done and Deidara was ready to pass out on the floor behind Sasori as the red head worked on the puppet on Kakuzu's locker. The blond was just ready to lay down when he noticed something that startled him awake. His heart nearly stopped as he noticed a small purple X on the back of Sasori's neck. Paling, he reached out to touch it, to make sure it wasn't his imagination.

Sasori shivered from the unexpected touch, "What are you doing brat?"

"Did you know about this, un?" He whispered in response.

The red head turned, having finally put the final touch on the puppet painting. "Know about what?"

"You have an X, un," Deidara's azure eyes searched his danna's light brown ones. Sasori stared back in shock.

"No," He choked out, "I didn't know."

Deidara registered the pain showing in his friend's eyes and spoke without thinking. "I have one too, un."

Sasori's eyes widened farther, "What?"

"I found it the day Itachi showed us his, un."

"Why didn't you-"

"Why didn't I tell anyone?" He laughed humorlessly, "I didn't think I could stand everyone's pity, un." Sasori was about to reply when the blond burst into tears. "I don't know if I can do this, un."

Sasori moved closer to the distraught blond, trying to figure out how to comfort him. "Can't do what?" He was never good in emotional situations like this.

"I can't just sit back and watch as every one of our friends die, un!" The blond's voice was shaking from anger and sorrow. "I can't watch you die," He added weakly.

Sasori's eyes softened at his confession. He used one hand to pull Deidara's face up to look at him while using the other to brush the blond bangs from the other's blue eyes. "You might not have to, you know. Only half of us have the mark, who's to say the rest of us will get one?" He refused to also propose the possibility that Deidara might die before them, before him. He didn't want to think of it.

Deidara stayed quiet as he looked at his danna. Later, when they were alone, they would try to blame the fatigue, shock, and sorrow on what happened next. Neither knew who moved first, maybe it was both all at once, but either way, they brought their lips together in a soft kiss. It lasted seconds, but to the two artists, it seemed like an eternity.

Deidara pulled back first, staring into Sasori's shocked face with one of his own. Before the red head could recover, the blond grabbed his bag and fled.

"Deidara!" Sasori cried out after the blond, but it was already too late. He was gone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've given up. I'm just going to upload all in one go. Enjoy!
> 
> Thanks again to my beta Shispas! You are awesome!
> 
> Anyways, anyone who can guess what W.T.O.U.I.T.W.T. gets a cyber cookie! Yummy chocolate chip cyber cookie!


	5. Chapter 5

The next morning brought awe to the student body as they entered the school. Posters lined the hall, covering up the rules and displaying different pictures, some of figures showed brains exploding into colorful candy and rainbows. Others showed a teacher writing on a board in front of the class, however, the teacher was standing on the ceiling and hanging upside down while the class watched from the floor.

As they made their ways through the hall, they came to the math and science hall. There, was a large mural of Albert Einstein with a large head sitting on a rocket and flying through a space full of stars and mathematical equations. All of the planets were also painted onto the brick with their symbol painted by them.

In between the band and choir rooms was a painting of a bunch of different instruments with music notes and symbols flowing out of them. The instruments themselves looked as if you could pick them up off the wall and the notes flowing out of them were multicolored and energizing.

The girl's bathroom had about five skeletons painted around the sinks and mirrors. Each of them had a different colored bow on the side of their head. Two of them were applying makeup while one was winking and the other two were blowing kisses. In the boy's restroom, five skeletons were also painted, but these ones were each playing a different sport rather than blowing kisses.

The cafeteria had a food fight portrayed on the back wall with realistic looking kids throwing globs of mashed potatoes and other such food back and forth. Some of the kids were covered in different colored goop and every one had large smiles painted on their faces.

Walking through the halls, nine kids could be heard jabbering excitedly to their friends about the puppets that were painted on their lockers in individual poses. They were just simple wooden puppets with no features and obvious creases for joints, but it didn't stop the excitement that they brought. Kakuzu stared at his, with its hands covering its face, and snorted. He couldn't help but feel that he should have known his locker would be one of the first targeted by the two artists.

Tsunade sat in her office staring at the life like-picture of herself smiling with her arms wrapped around two of her worst students, Hidan and a senior named Zabuza. She stayed in that same position until the bell rang in which she took up the first announcement.

"Good morning students. I would like to start off by asking if the delinquents who painted the school would please step forward. This type of vandalism will not be tolerated here at Konaha High. If you don't step forward and we find out who you are later, you're punishment will be worse than what it already will be. You face expulsion at the most. I implore you to step forward before it comes to this. That is all."

Pein took over then. "Thank you, Ms. Tsunade," He started. "I shall make my own plea for the student to step forward so that I can tell them how freaking amazing the school looks now! I mean, have you seen the cafeteria? Freaking. Amazing."

He quickly switched to the original announcements when he thought he could hear Tsunade yell at him from the other side of the school. "Anyways, today is the first art club meeting quite ironically." He laughed, "And also the first home football game. Good luck ninjas!" He gave another laugh at that. The school's mascot had become a ninja two years ago when the students felt that a tiger was too lame and voted for a new one. Ninja's won over pirates by a landslide. "Finally the last segment of news would involve a sky blue colored bra with a plain dark green pair of panties. Going Mother Nature today, eh, Tsunade?" He laughed ending with, "Have a wonderful day! Hopefully the storm clouds stay out of your path!"

Tsunade kicked in the door as Pein shut off the mic. "What the hell did I tell you!"

Pein put a finger to his chin and smiled, "That last week's broadcast was inappropriate?"

"So why did you do it again?" She fumed.

"But I didn't."

The principal stared at him in disbelief. "You-"

"I didn't say 'uber'." He interrupted. "That's what you thought was inappropriate right? After all, lots of people believe it isn't a real word and all."

The blond woman stared at him for a moment longer before letting out a muffled scream which ended up sounding like a dying cat, causing Pein to burst out laughing. "You have a week in ISS, starting today and you can no longer broadcast the news. Give me your key."

Pein smiled as he calmly gave her the key to the room they were in, which she snatched up with a fury and stomped out of the room. Laughing he headed out into the halls to locate the in school suspension room.

~xXx~

Lunch was awkward as Pein was missing and Sasori and Deidara were refusing to look at each other, even as the rest of Akatsuki congratulated them on a job well done. Sasori's mark was also lingering over the group as it would mean their whole group was that much closer to extinction. On top of that, they had lots of stares directed at their table as Kakuzu was no longer wearing his bandana, and had left his hoodie in his locker, revealing the massive amount of scars on his arms.

Tsunade approached the table right before the period was over. "Tobi," She called.

"Yes Ms. Tsunade, ma'am?" He asked in a sickeningly sweet voice.

"I'm making you the new daily news anchor. Do not repeat after your friend's example." With that she turned and left, obviously still pissed, but whether it was because of the broadcast or the murals, no one could tell.

"Don't worry!" Tobi yelled after her, "Tobi's a good boy!"

"Good luck, Tobi," Konan smiled. A small amount of laughter followed her comment as the bell rang ending the lunch period.

~xXx~

Pein met the rest of Akatsuki outside the school once classes were over. "So, did you guys enjoy the announcements?" He asked, smiling broadly. He received enthusiastic nods and 'yes's. "Who'd she get to replace me?"

"Me!" Tobi yelled, waving his hand in the air. "I told her not to worry because Tobi's a good boy."

Hidan snickered, "She was so fucking pissed this morning. I think today has been the best fucking day ever."

Rolling his eyes, Kakuzu smacked him upside the head. "Language, Hidan."

The albino punched him back, "Whatever, bitch."

They were quiet for a moment, until Pein's face broke out into a mischievous grin. "Hey guys," he waited for various forms of yes before continuing. "You better all get into detention next week."

"Why?" Kisame asked, slowly drawing out the word.

"'Cause it's going to be fucking amazing." He stated simply, running to Jiraiya's car that had just pulled up, Konan in tow.

Laughing, they split up to head to their individual homes, each looking forward to what tomorrow could bring.


	6. Chapter 6

"And today's forecast seems to be going tropical with matching tiger print bra and panties!" Tobi's giggles echoed through the halls, "Now, have a wild day everyone!"

Tsunade could only be described as a harpy as she tore down the halls screaming in rage. Students in the rooms on the complete opposite side of the school could hear Tsunade laying into Tobi. "You have a week in ISS!" She was already pissed at finding ten more lockers painted when she arrived that morning, and this was not helping her headache that was slowly starting to develop behind her eyes.

"Yes, ma'am!" Tobi replied with a salute, obviously smiling behind his mask.

This pissed her off even more as she added, "And I don't want to see you for the rest of the day! Go home." She left, slamming the door so hard that China could, no doubt, hear it.

Unfortunately, this was just the beginning of the blond principal's disaster of a day.

~xXx~

Kisame looked around the cafeteria, taking in the sight of bored teenagers poking at their food and idly holding conversations with friends. Their own table was quiet and full of tension as both Pein and Tobi were missing. Sasori and Deidara were also still obviously avoiding one another for some unknown reason and Kakuzu seemed to be on edge about something he wasn't willing to share.

Looking at his tray of cafeteria goop, he himself could feel boredom set in. He pushed his tray away and rested his head on his hand, staring at the wall in front of him which happened to be the one with the mural on it. It took five seconds for Kisame to come up with an idea and an evil smile to break out on his face.

He grabbed a handful of what was supposedly mashed potatoes, and flung it across the cafeteria. It landed on some senior girl's hair and she shrieked. Looking up she spotted him, to which he pointed at the unsuspecting teen who walked past him. The girl picked up her own gunk and flung it at the kid, and instead hit one of the football players in the back of the head.

By this time the room had gone completely quiet. Kisame, still smiling wickedly, climbed on top of his chair and shouted, "Food fight!" And then, all hell broke loose.

Screams and laughter filled the room as students ducked behind trays and underneath tables. Others were flinging food at anyone and everyone, while collecting some on themselves. Kisame was cackling wildly in a very Hidan like manner as he pelted cheerleaders with 'pudding' from his and his friends' trays. Hidan, himself, had joined Kisame and was standing on the table, aiming for anyone who looked like they didn't want to participate. Kakuzu, Sasori, and Zetsu had let loose for once and were flinging peas at anyone within their range. Konan and Tobi were running around kamikaze style, throwing anything they could find. Deidara was laughing as he expertly hit every target he made with his own hoard of food.

Their fun lasted all of ten minutes before one of the teachers had recovered enough to run and find Tsunade. The loud boom that echoed throughout the room as she kicked in the doors was enough to cause all movement to stop. "Who the," she paused, trying to restrain her rage, "Who started this?"

Fingers flew around the room, most of them pointing at Kisame. The rest of Akatsuki even threw their friend under the bus, huge smiles plastered on their faces. Itachi, who had quietly sat at the table the whole time, also raised a shaky hand to point at his boyfriend.

Kisame just laughed, "Fucking tattle tails."

Tsunade stomped up to him and through her anger asked, "Why?"

The blue man shrugged, "It was boring. It seemed like everyone was in need of a bit of fun." He held out a handful of potatoes. "Wanna try it? You know you want to."

She shrieked and was about to blow up on him when something happened to cause every one of their hearts to stop. Itachi had started to cough, and this time, he couldn't stop. He clutched at his chest as his eyes watered and his gasps grew louder, yet the coughs still forced their way out. Kisame flew to his side just as the Uchiha collapsed unconscious into his arms, still gasping for air.

Fear and worry replacing anger, Tsunade was now helping Kisame check over Itachi and yelling for someone to call an ambulance. Within twenty minutes, Itachi was being lowered onto a stretcher and loaded into the back of the ambulance. Kisame was clutching his hand and Tsunade sitting on the other side as the vehicle rushed out of the parking lot and into the street, lights and siren's wailing horribly.

Before leaving the school, Tsunade announced that school was officially over for the day; though, no one felt like rejoicing.

~xXx~

Hidan kicked a rock at his feet, watching as it flew a few feet in front of him as he walked. It stayed there until he reached it and kicked it again. Kakuzu quietly watched his companion as he sent the rock flying for the umpteenth time. They were on their way home after stopping by the hospital. After Kisame and Itachi had left in the ambulance, the rest of their group ran to Jiraiya and begged him to take them to the hospital which he did, after picking up Tobi and Pein.

The Uchiha was hooked up to oxygen and an IV when they got there. Both Sasuke and Kisame were each holding one of his hands as he slept. Kisame told them he was in a coma caused by the illness which nobody knew when, or if, he would wake up. They had spent a half hour there, comforting each other before Jiraiya offered them all a ride home. Kakuzu and Hidan had declined, preferring to walk home to clear their heads.

In all actuality, the truth was that Kakuzu had been debating over something with himself. He had promised he would do something, but now was wondering if he should. If he was going to, he preferred to do it without any of the other Akatsuki members around to make it awkward.

Hidan made a frustrated noise when the rock landed in the grass a foot from the road. "Fucking Jashin damn it," He muttered as he angrily stuck his hands in his hoodie jacket.

Kakuzu sighed, "Language Hidan."

"Fuck you, Kakuzu." He glared at the stitched man before turning back to watch the clouds.

They continued to walk in silence until reaching Kakuzu's flat, but before the boy could turn for the door, having already given up on what he wanted to do, Hidan stopped him.

"What's wrong with you?" When he got a questioning look from the taller boy he explained, "You've been acting weird today. Weirder than normal." Kakuzu opened his mouth but was cut off with, "And don't say it's because of Itachi. You were weird before that."

Sighing Kakuzu quickly made up his mind as it was now or never. Grabbing Hidan's chin, he pulled his head forward to meet his in a quick kiss. "I like you, Hidan. Maybe even love you," He explained to the albino's shocked face. "I was going to tell you after school but the Itachi thing happened and I didn't think it was appropriate for this situation."

Hidan just stared at him, eyes wide and mouth slightly opened. Kakuzu didn't know how to take it. "Say something before I just leave you here."

The Jashinist remained quiet, but now seemed to be deep in thought. After another moment of awkward silence, Kakuzu let out a groan and turned to head up to his home. He was stopped again, however, by a pale hand on his shoulder. "Do you mean that?"

Kakuzu turned to see Hidan's face, covered in an emotion he couldn't read, "What?"

"Did you mean what you said? About… Loving me?"

The stitched boy looked into Hidan's magenta eyes and replied with a simple, "Yes."

Hidan nodded then, hand moving around to the front of Kakuzu's Akatsuki jacket, and pulled him into another quick kiss. "Me too." He whispered and then laughed at the surprised look on the other's face.

"Really?"

"Yeah," He said, smiling. "I didn't know it at first, but you kissing me brought it into perspective."

Kakuzu smiled back as they kissed again, this time deeper. As they pulled back, Kakuzu asked, "Wanna come in?"

Hidan smiled, "Now Kuzu, I'm not that kind of girl."

He laughed and swatted the younger boy upside the head. "Nah, you're not a girl at all," He said as he headed up to his home.

Hidan frowned at the slightly sarcastic tone. "Oi!" He yelled, running after Kakuzu. "What the fuck was that supposed to mean?" Kakuzu just laughed as Hidan chased after him.

Needless to say, Hidan spent the night there, trying and nearly succeeding to prove just how unlike a girl he was. However, with Kakuzu as his opponent, he was doomed to fail.

~xXx~

Sasori made his way through the dark school with his art supplies, alone, just as he had done the night before. He kept telling himself it was for the locker paintings, but he knew it was also for a chance to run into Deidara alone.

After the blond had run off two nights ago, Sasori did some majorly deep thinking. He knew he liked the blond, but up until that moment, he had never thought of whether he liked him more. Now, he had given up on the silly 'lack of sleep' excuse and opened his eyes to the real answer. He just hoped the same goes for the other artist.

Unfortunately, Deidara wasn't making it easy to find out. He could never find the blond without another Akatsuki member and the red head was just about ready to ask in front of the group, no matter how awkward it would make things. But, he knew Deidara wouldn't appreciate it; therefore, he'll say quiet. For now.

He stopped in front of Itachi's locker. He had decided that afternoon to paint it, along with Deidara's. He set down his bag and set to penciling the outline. He made the puppet so that it had one hand up in the air as if it was waving and the other straight down at its side. It was a bittersweet image and he had half a mind to paint angel wings on it. He ended up deciding against it as it was too soon to be thinking of things that way.

It took him twenty minutes to paint the puppet, not wanting to mess up on one of the most important ones. When he was done he went around to ten more lockers before stopping at Deidara's. He had decided to do eleven puppets tonight so that it made it seem like Itachi's was special, because it was. It was Friday so no one would even see them for another two days, which he planned to come in each one to paint ten more.

This time he penciled in one with its arms crossed over its chest and one foot on top of the other. It was a position Deidara took up a lot when he was trying to look cool leaning against something. It was quite hysterical at first but eventually he was able to pull it off. The red headed artist smiled as he painted it.

He had hoped the blond would show up tonight but somehow he knew he wouldn't. As he packed up his supplies, he thought about stopping by the other's house before heading home, but he didn't think the blond would answer, whether awake or not.

It was only ten by the time he left the building through the gym door, leaving it propped open for tomorrow. He tried to call Kakuzu to see if he wanted to do something, but there was no answer, which was weird in itself because the stitched teen always answered his phone no matter what time it was.

Shrugging he sighed and headed home alone, hoping his grandmother was still up and would watch a movie with him. He hated being alone on Friday nights. They always seemed the loneliest.

If he had stayed only ten minutes later, he would have ran into the blond, who had left his homework in his locker. He feared running into Sasori but he was already near failing the class and knew he wouldn't get it tomorrow or the next day. Procrastination worked like that.

So he had left the safety of his home to pick up his math book and notebook. He hadn't expected to see a still wet puppet on the door of his locker, in the exact position he liked to stand. He smiled at the sight of it and continued to smile as he got his books and left. He'd had to thank Sasori.

Too bad he was avoiding him still. He frowned. He felt too awkward around the red head recently. He knew it was from the kiss but didn't know why the feeling hadn't dissipated since then. If only he was more awake that night. Then it would never have happened.

Sighing as he got to his apartment, he gave up on that line of thought and got set for a long night of quadratic equations.


	7. Chapter 7

Kakuzu gently stirred awake. Grumbling he opens his eyes to get a view of a still sleeping Hidan. Memories of the night before flooded into his mind as the corners of his stitched mouth pulled up in a full smile. He wrapped an arm around Hidan and pulled him closer, breathing in the scent of the other as he laid his head on Hidan's.

"Mmm Kuzu, ten more minutes." The albino mumbled as he turned and snuggled into Kakuzu's chest.

The stitched man laughed, "Who said anything about getting up, dumbass."

Hidan snorted. "Shut up asswipe."

They both laughed and Hidan sat up and stretched, letting the sheet slide down, revealing his chest, marred by many purple marks. The silver haired boy looked at them and laughed. "Way to go Kuzu. Now I can't take my shirt off in public."

Kakuzu smiled, "No you can, this just tells every one else that you're mine."

Hidan laughed as Kakuzu pulled him down into a deep kiss, only broken by Hidan's need for air. "Alright. I think it's about time to get out of bed, ne?"

Kakuzu groaned as the younger man rolled out of the bed, but quickly quieted to admire the sight it gave him. His eyes trailed down Hidan's naked form, admiring each aspect, and each of his marks, until his gaze reached his right hip. There, right on the protruding bone, was a small purple X, about the size of Kakuzu's thumb.

Hidan turned to catch Kakuzu staring. "What? Enjoying your handiwork?" he laughed.

Kakuzu debated on telling him about the X and decided the pale man would notice sooner or later. "Um... Hidan."

The younger man's face fell, interpreting the other's reluctant tone. He followed Kakuzu's gaze to his hip and spotted the mark. Without pausing he quickly gathered his clothes and ran to the bathroom, locking the door.

Kakuzu sighed, getting up from bed, and threw on his boxers after locating them. He walked over to the door and knocked. "Let me in Hidan."

He could hear a sniffle from inside as a very muffled 'no' was given. The stitched man sighed once more. "Hidan, you know I have ways of getting in without you unlocking the door."

There was some shuffling on the other side of the door as Hidan's voice got closer. "I really don't want to."

Kakuzu sat down on the floor, putting his back to it. "Fine, but we're still talking."

"Fine." Another sniffle was heard from behind the door.

"I know how you feel Hidan." Kakuzu started. "You're scared, worried, and angry. But most of all you just wanna know why. Why you? Why now?"

There was silence for a while before he heard, "Why give me this and tear it away." Hidan finally opened the door, causing Kakuzu to turn around. The whites of Hidan's eyes now nearly matched the magenta of his irises. "Why let me finally feel what it's like to love and be loved, and then rip it out from underneath my very feet." His voice seemed to grow angrier as he continued, eventually causing him to clench his teeth at the end. "I mean, I know you have yours but, somehow, this makes it more final."

The stitched man pulled the smaller man to him. "I know, Hidan. This curse is nearly suffocating enough without adding this to it. However, if it wasn't for this curse, we probably never would have happened." He pulled back and lifted Hidan's head with his hand. "This curse can also be a blessing." Kakuzu pulled Hidan into a slow, soft kiss.

Hidan sighed into the kiss and closed his eyes. "I guess you're right," He claimed after the older man pulled back.

"Of course I'm right. I'm never wrong after all." Kakuzu smiled and Hidan laughed.

"You wish." The Jashinist finally relaxed, laying his head on Kakuzu's scarred chest. "Thank you."

"No problem." Kakuzu smiled. "Now let's go get something to eat. Pein told all of us to meet up at the school by noon."

"What time is it now?" Hidan asked.

Glancing at the clock, Kakuzu's smile widened and he gave a small chuckle. "Twelve thirty-five."

Hidan laughed. "Shit! Let's get a move on then. Puppet boy must be ready to fuckin' explode!"

Kakuzu laughed and followed his lover to the kitchen, lightly smacking him upside the head. "Language," he reminded, earning a middle finger and a laugh.

~xXx~

Kisame stared at Itachi's sleeping form, not really taking in anything. The doctor had just told him that they had to put the Uchiha in a medical induced coma. His organs were failing and to prevent any magnitude of pain they had to keep him like that until they could replace the organs that were failing.

Months. That was the time frame he was given, but he knows they don't expect him to live that long. It seemed after the nurses noticed the X on his arm, they stopped trying as hard to get him back to full health. The first time he noticed this he nearly punched the doctor. He didn't believe it was right to give up on a patient after noticing they were touched by death. He argued with the staff for hours before finally giving up.

Now he only stared at the pale Uchiha, grasping to his hand like he was the only anchor Itachi had to this world. "I will not leave you, love," He whispered, bending down to kiss the other's pale forehead. "Not even in death."

~xXx~

"About damn time you two got here!" Sasori yelled across the parking lot as he spotted Kakuzu and Hidan getting out of Kakuzu's car. "You're two hours late!"

"Yeah, un!" Deidara added. "What the hell were you two doing?"

The pair looked at each other before Hidan shrugged, saying with a smile on his face, "Each other, duh."

Deidara stared at the two of them for a moment before crinkling his nose, "Okay. Gross, un."

Kakuzu laughed, "Anyway, what are we doing here?"

"Zetsu thought the place needed a bit more color to the outside so that it matches the inside." Pein stepped forward, "So, our weekend project is to create a fantastic garden for the school that everyone would love to spend their lunches in."

"Fuckin' sweet, but before we get started-" Hidan began but was quickly interrupted by Sasori's snort.

"You mean before you two begin. We've been at this for two hours."

"Yeah well what-the-fuck-ever, before me and Kuzu start then, I have an announcement."

Deidara groaned. "I swear I'll blow you both sky high if you are going to explain what you were doing last night."

"As much as I'd love to tell you all how good Kuzu here is in bed," Deidara groaned again as everyone else rolled their eyes. "That's not what I have to say."

"Then what the hell is it?" Sasori yelled, finally fed up with waiting. He'd arrived at five till noon and everyone else had arrived within the next six minutes, with Deidara being a minute late. They had to wait for ten minutes after that before starting without the missing pair. Needless to say, Sasori was less than tolerant with these two now.

"I have officially joined our little cursed family we got going on here!" Hidan smiled, ignoring the puppet master's frustration. "But it's cool cause I've got it figured out."

Sasori's anger seemed to dissipate as he and the rest of Akatsuki processed this. Each putting together the fact that another among them has found their mark of death.

"Wait... Hidan?" Konan spoke, voice hesitant. She knew the obvious but hoped her interpretation was wrong. "You mean..."

"Yep! I have an X too. I'd show you all but only Kuzu here is aloud to see me naked." He winked at Kakuzu who snorted and rolled his eyes at the spectacle the albino was putting on.

"Since when, un?" Deiara asked. He was too shocked to berate Hidan for another sexual reference.

"Well Kakuzu noticed it this morning- or afternoon I guess."

"Exactly what did you mean by saying you had it all figured out?" Pein asked, eyebrow raised in curiosity.

"Ah! Glad you asked!" Hidan smiled. "You all know how the school play this year is Romeo and Juliet right?" He waited for a few of them to nod before saying, "Well I'm going to turn it around and make it Bitchin' Romeo and Juliet!"

"And how exactly are you planning to do that?" Deidara's voice was skeptical at best.

"Well I pretty much already have the lead part of Romeo, so, after practice I'll gather the crew and we'll flip that shit!" Hidan's smile widened as he finished telling his plan. He got a mixture of laughs and skeptical looks from his group of friends.

"Well, I'm glad this hasn't changed you're attitude any." Konan smiled.

No one mentioned how it seemed they were slowly starting to be killed off, almost to the point that the ones without marks were starting to wonder if their lives were safe. Even if the mark hadn't shown yet, they felt that they were also bound to the fate of their friends. After all, if someone as healthy and immortal-like as Hidan could get the mark, they were sure to have one of their own soon. However, they did talk inimitably about how Zetsu's idea for the school was going to turn out great and Hidan was proudly stating his plans for the play.

This was how they spent the weekend, celebrating life and new love. They did spend moments worrying for their friends who were absent, though. Kisame seemed to get worse as Itachi's condition did. He, instead of being with his friends, laughing and having fun, spent the weekend in the cold, dreary hospital. He refused to leave and the nurses were forced to grant him permission to stay after many failed attempts at getting him to at least move to the waiting rooms.

Nevertheless, the garden turned out beautiful. It completely encompassed the school and branched off a little too each side of the building. Saplings were planted branching off both sides of the school in a semicircle, with benches near by. When they were grown, the trees would provide a nice shaded area to sit in. Flowers of all colors lined the four walls making up the school and little statues of animals were scattered decoratively around with some larger ones big enough to sit on mixed in. Sets of two benches were spaced evenly on either side of the main doors and more were added around each side as places to sit and chat.

Students and teachers both openly gawked at the scene upon first arriving. Many circled the school to take in all the new color. Some students even sat on the benches or amongst the new flowers, already loving the change. When Tsunade arrived, everyone turned to watch her expression and hoped it was a good one.

The blond woman took in the sight of her students laughing and smiling amongst the new rainbow of color. After a moment of just standing and looking from her car in the parking lot, she nonchalantly closed her door and walked into the school.

Through out the day students and teachers alike waited to hear something about the new splash of color as they did with the murals last week; however, no such announcement was made and everyone left school happy that the garden was staying.


	8. Chapter 8

When Deidara arrived at school he noticed his friends huddled in a circle. "What's up, un?"

The huddle opened up to reveal Konan holding out her wrist. There, standing out on her flawless pale skin, was an X. "I found it on the way here. Jiraiya nearly broke down when he caught me looking at it." Her voice was wavering and her eyes were red making it obvious she had been crying.

Deidara's hands balled into fists. "Why the hell is fate targeting us? What did we ever do?"

"Dei-" Konan started only to be cut off by a fuming blond.

"No! I know for a fact that that's what's happening here. I mean, we all have the mark besides three of us!"

"Wait... Tobi, Zetsu, Kisame, and you makes four," Hidan asked but when Deidara just gaped at him he added, "You too?" A hesitant nod from the blond prompted another question, "The fuck man! Since when?"

Deidara hung his head and mumbled, "Since the first day of school, un."

"What the fuck blonde! That was like a fuckin' month ago!"

"I know!" He took a breath and sighed, "I know. I just... I didn't want anyone to treat me different." The blond stared at his feet, not wanting to face his friends.

"Do you really think we'd treat you that differently?" Konan was the one who spoke this time, cutting Hidan off from his ranting with her soft tone.

"No, I guess not anymore, un. But when I first noticed it only Pein had his and then that day we found out about Itachi's. You all looked on them with pity and did them favors and watched their every move like they'd fall over dead any second! I couldn't deal with that, un."

Everyone was silent as they realized Deidara was in fact, correct. They had treated the ones with the mark differently and they could see why Deidara chose not to come forward.

"Still, when where you going to tell us?" Hidan asked, this time without anger.

"I don't know, un." Deidara sighed. "I probably would have never said anything."

The bell rang ending their discussion. Each of them headed off to class, silently pondering why the universe chose them, and why now.

~xXx~

Sasori had finally caught Deidara alone. He had left his third hour class to use the restroom and found the blond there washing his hands. He quickly cornered the younger boy against the wall of the boy's bathroom. He was going to get some answers and he was going to get them now. "What was that all about?"

"You know me, un." Deidara laughed nervously. "My anger got the best of me and it just blurted out, un!"

"Not that!" He knew snapping at him would do no good but as everyone knew, patience wasn't Sasori's greatest virtue.

"Well then I'm afraid I don't follow, un."

Sasori sighed, "The other night. What was that."

"I don't know what you're talking about, un," Deidara replied, keeping his gaze away from Sasori's.

"The damn kiss!" The red head yelled, finally loosing the small amount of patience he had saved.

"Oh. That."

"Yeah, that."

Deidara sighed, "Would you believe me if I said that I didn't know."

"What do you mean?" Sasori's voice had softened as he tried to understand.

"I have no idea why it happened, un! It just... Did."

"And if it were to happen again?"

"I-I uh... I don't really, um-" Deidara's stuttering was cut off by Sasori's lips on his own. This time, Deidara almost immediately started kissing back. This kiss was defiantly different from their first. It was less clumsy and more hesitant as if they were only testing to see what the other would do. Eventually Sasori was the one to deepen it by licking at the blondes lips, to which he opened immediately.

After a while they broke for air, each looking at the other with new understanding. "So?" Sasori asked with a smirk on his face.

Deidara rolled his eyes. "So you're a dick for cutting me off like that."

"Ah, but there's no running away this time?" His smirk got wider as Deidara blushed.

"No, no running away, un."

"Good." Sasori leaned in and kissed the blonde again, only a short peck though as he turned and walked out the bathroom door.

Deidara stared in disbelief at the door before hurrying after the red head yelling, "What the fuck, Danna, un!"

~xXx~

Zetsu was on his way to his herbology class when he caught sight of Tobi curled up in a corner by one of the large windows.

He changed course and walked over to the boy, his white half asking in a concerned tone, "What's wrong Tobi?" Now that he could hear Tobi sobbing he quickly sat down and patted his back awkwardly.

"I-I f-found the X... on-n my n-neck." The masked boy turned his head to bury his face into the other's shirt.

Zetsu had no idea what to do. His heart hurt to see the normally bright and energetic boy like this but he wasn't use to these situations.

"Uh.." His black half stuttered before the white one took over, "It's alright Tobi. It's ok."

"N-no it's n-not!" He blubbered as the stutter got worse as he got more upset, "I d-don't wan-na le-eave my-my frien-nds. I d-don't wan-na leave y-you!"

Zetsu was shocked into silence. He had no clue what he was suppose to do or say, so, he decided to just wing it. "You can never leave us, Tobi."

The boy sniffed and looked up at the two toned man, "Really?"

"Yeah!" His black half exclaimed, glad he got the boy to at least stop sobbing. His white half then added, "We all carry each other in here." He held his hand to his chest, right above his heart. "Even once our bodies are gone, our soul will live on in the hearts of the ones we love."

Tobi was looking up at Zetsu with admiration. "I never thought of that."

"Me neither." Blackie mumbled inaudibly as Tobi was pulled to Zetsu's chest in a tight embrace.

The tardy bell interrupted them and Tobi pulled back. He pushed his mask up to wipe at his eyes and Zetsu took this opportunity to give Tobi a quick kiss. Few people knew about their relationship as Tobi decided Zetsu didn't need any more trouble than he already got for his two toned skin. Zetsu had reluctantly agreed but convinced Tobi to at least tell the rest ofAkatsuki; though, only Pein and Konan knew so far.

"Shall we head to class then?" Zetsu asked after Tobi pulled his mask back into place.

"Ok." Tobi was still sniffing but had at least stopped crying.

On the way to class Zetsu's black half started cackling. Tobi looked up at him questioningly behind the orange swirl of the mask. Zetsu knew Tobi enough to sense the younger's emotions and replied to his look, "I think we just got into detention like Pein wanted."

Tobi laughed now as well. "I think we did." He hugged Zetsu and smiled up at him. Zetsu smiled and hugged him back before they split to head to their individual class.

~xXx~

Pein walked into detention with a smile on his face. He was greeted by about thirty other faces, some he knew, and some he didn't. As he took a seat next to Konan, he looked around to see if everyone else was present.

Kisame and Kakuzu were seated in the back corner, whispering quietly amongst themselves. Hidan was sitting in front of Kakuzu, carving his god's symbol into the wood of the desk with one of his hidden pocket knifes. Tobi and Zetsu walked in then and sat up front laughing and talking to each other animatedly. Sasori sat off by himself as he waited for Deidara to come in.

The blond was the one who was assigned to gather everything they'd need to make tonight a success. He came rushing in about five seconds later, causing all of Akatsuki to jump up and help him set out what he brought in his overly bulky gym bag. Everyone else watched silently as they set up a machine in the front corner of the room. The teacher hadn't arrived yet so they had plenty of time.

As they were putting the thing together Tobi turned around and stood on a desk. "Who's ready for Karaoke?" He yelled. The rest of the classroom smiled and some cheered while others actually stood up and walked over to the machine. "We have plenty of known favorites! And if any of you have you're music playing device feel free to plug it in and rock out!"

Now some people actually cheered as the other Akatsuki members backed up to reveal the machine. Two microphones where hooked up incase duets where formed, and a small screen on the top displayed the song choices and lyrics.

Konan chose the first person to sing right as the teacher walked in. No one actually paid him any attention as the first person jumped up on the desk Tobi was just on and began to sing.

"What is this?" The teacher, Mr. Saratobi yelled.

Hidan walked up to him and smiled. "Why sir, it's Karaoke of course! Would you like to try?"

"Wait," The teacher gasped at the student before him. "What?"

"Konan! We have a new contestant right here!" Hidan yelled across the room to the girl who was taking names and song requests.

"Bring him on up!" She yelled, smiling as the crowd of students pushed the teacher forward and onto the desk. The student that was there before gladly handed over the mic to the stunned teacher.

Konan flipped through the selections speaking to the teacher with a wide smile, "You seem like a Nickelback kind of guy to me." She promptly chose Nickleback's song, Animals and sat back to watch the show.

Everyone had a laugh at the fact that a teacher was singing such a raunchy song. Even Mr Saratobi couldn't help laughing at the song's lyrics. When his turn was up he quickly got back on the list to sing again.

Needless to say, by the end of the hour and a half, no one wanted to leave, not even the teacher.


	9. Chapter 9

The telephone ringing woke Kisame up at five in the morning. He reached over Itachi's empty side of the bed and grabbed his cell from the nightstand. "Hello?" His voice was groggy with sleep as he spoke into the receiver.

"Hello? Mr. Kisame? This is Dr. Kasana from the Konaha Hospital."

Kisame was awake instantly. "Itachi. How is he? Has he woken up?"

"I'm afraid not." The doctor's voice was grim as he explained, "He stopped breathing about four this morning and we had to put him on life support. He's alive but I doubt he will be for very much longer. Family and friends should come in to say their good byes."

Kisame stared at the wall in front of him, the hand holding the phone was shaking. "I understand. His brother, cousin and I will be in soon."

"I'll tell the nurses to be expecting you." He then hung up after a short goodbye leaving Kisame staring at his phone for a moment.

When he got out of bed he went to Sasuke's room first then Tobi's, telling each of them that they were going to visit Itachi.

The boys knew from the start that this was no ordinary visit. Kisame was barely moving as he got ready. He hadn't been this bad since Itachi had collapsed.

Tobi was the one to point out Kisame's X on his ankle while he was pulling his shoes on. It stood out against the man's white skin. Kisame looked at it and coldly laughed, saying, "It's about bloody time," before walking out to the car, a small smile left on his face.

Tobi and Sasuke shared a concerned look before jumping into the car. The ride was silent, only breaking for a yawn or two. Determined to get them to the hospital quickly, Kisame kept his eyes on the road and hands grasping the steering wheel. When they arrived at the hospital it was around six in the morning and still dark out.

As soon as the boys walked in the nurses at the front desk quickly showed them up to Itachi's new room and the difference was noticed immediately. The Uchiha was paler than they thought was possible and was hooked up to many machines. Tobi and Sasuke knew what the change meant instantly and began to cry.

The boys were allowed to stay most of the morning but were told to go to school around eleven. The doctor wrote them each a note for missing morning classes and sent them on their way. They left the room promising to be back after school with all their friends.

~xXx~

Lunch was a chaotic scene. As soon as Kisame and Tobi walked in the door, they were swarmed by the rest of Akatsuki but it was Tobi's cry that caused everyone to go silent. He had spotted the large X crossing over Zetsu's lips.

After Zetsu calmed the distraught Uchiha down, Kisame showed his mark off to his friends. "I was starting to think it would never come."

Red flags went off in everyone's head. Kisame seemed almost happy to have this curse. Before anyone could say anything though, a kid walked by and noticed the two new Xs. "So it is true," He whispered.

"What is?" Tobi asked, still sniffing but much more composed.

"You are the death's bunch. You all probably have the mark somewhere."

"So?" Deidara spoke, venom in his voice.

"You're all cursed and should stay away from the rest of us!" A new kid yelled out, after having noticed the smaller boy's dilemma.

Hidan almost growled as he lunged at the last kid with no warning. Kakuzu tried to grab him but was too late. They were all forced to sit back and watch as Hidan tore at the poor bastard. Everyone there knew that when Hidan was pissed you stayed the fuck out of his way. It was the other's own stupidity that caused this and no one was going to get hurt for stopping it. The bastard was just lucky Hidan didn't pull out his knife's.

Soon enough however, a teacher noticed and ran after Tsunade who was the only person able to pull Hidan off his victims. While the teacher was gone all hell broke lose as the Akatsuki and the ones sympathetic to them fought against the others who believed the group was cursed. Hidan and the kid were the only ones throwing punches however, if you could even call it that. All the kid could do was hold his arms up to shield his face as Hidan went postal.

Tsunade seemed to walk into a battlefield. She yelled, "Quiet!" and the whole room obeyed. Only the whining from the kid, Hidan's angry grunts, and his fists hitting the other could be heard. Tsunade walked over to the two on the floor, her heels clicking audibly against the tiled floor. She pulled up on Hidan's shirt collar causing him to release the boy and grab for his neck. Shizune then rushed in and grabbed the bruised and bleeding boy off the floor, rushing him to the nurse's office.

"What happened here?" Tsunade yelled, keeping a tight hold on Hidan's collar.

"The kid was making fun of us." Tobi spoke up. His voice had gone watery signaling to the fact that he was crying. "Hidan jumped on him to teach him a lesson."

"Yeah!" Hidan spoke up, voice shaking with anger. "You don't just fuckin mess with my friends and expect to just fuckin walk away unscathed! Now let me go grandma! I'm going to bash his fuckin head in so hard even Jashin wouldn't be able to recognize the fucker!"

Tsunade sighed. "Language, Hidan." She surveyed the room full of kids watching them like a show. "Back to class! All of you!" Then she turned to Hidan, "You're coming with me. I should suspend you right on the spot but I know how Ibuki can be."

The rest of Akatsuki watched as Hidan was lead out of the room. "Well this day just gets worse and worse." Tobi mumbled.

~xXx~

It was an hour since school had let out and all of Akatsuki plus Sasuke were sitting in Itachi's hospital room. Some of them had tears in their eyes from the sight of the normally proud Uchiha. Others looked on in sorrow as Kisame clutched his hand and Sasuke tried not to cry, failing as tears kept falling down his cheeks.

No one spoke and the room was full of a thick depressed aura. They all knew that they should be saying their good byes but they feared that would make this whole thing even more real.

Deidara broke the silence with shaking laughter from his spot next to Sasori on the window sill. When he got looks of confusion, and anger on Kisame's part, he blushed and responded, "I was just remembering something, un."

"What?" Sasori asked for all of them.

"Remember last summer when we all kept calling Itachi weasel? And then sang Pop Goes The Weasel whenever he left the room, un?"

Smiles slowly spread across the room. "All around the Mulberry Bush," Tobi started to sing quietly.

"The monkey chased the weasel." Joining in on the memory, the rest of them, minus Kisame, smiled while singing. "The monkey stopped to pull up his sock..." Here they paused, knowing the implications of the final phrase.

"Pop goes the Weasel." Kisame said quietly, not looking up from Itachi's face. He had successfully brought the peaceful memory back to the cold reality. Itachi was going to die.

Sasuke started crying then, along with Tobi, Konan and Deidara who each buried their head's in their boyfriend's chest. Hidan closed his eyes against the tears, leaning his head back into Kakuzu.

Reality sucks.


	10. Chapter 10

"And for today's segment of WTOUITWT, we have a lovely set of a lacy light blue bra with white and black polka-dotted panties! What a horrible match right?" Konan smiled into the microphone, nearly giving into laughter herself. "So with this we conclude the morning announcements. Have a fantasmic day!" Konan then hurriedly ran out of the broadcasting room and found her friends waiting for her. They were each holding a squirt gun and Sasori handed one off to her.

"That was fuckin' brilliant Konan!" Hidan shouted, clapping her on the back.

"Language." Kakuzu reminded him with a smack to the back of his head.

"Yeah, yeah." Hidan stuck out his tongue and flipped him off.

"Real mature guys, un." Deidara rolled his eyes.

The PA system crackled before Tsunade's voice was heard. "Would Tobi, Kisame, Hidan, Kakuzu, Deidara, Pein, Konan, Zetsu and Sasori please come to my office immediately." Her voice was soft and solemn, not its usual spit fire angry.

All of the Akatsuki members present looked at each other with questioning glances. "Why didn't she sound angry?" Tobi asked as they all headed down the hall, shoving the water guns in their bags, to wait outside Tsunade's office.

"And why does she want all of us?" Sasori quietly asked. "We haven't even started yet."

The blond woman looked sorrowful as she ushered the group into her office where now nine chairs were gathered in front of her desk instead of two. She waited until everyone was seated before sitting herself. She let out a huge sigh, "I have no idea how to say this rather than just plain bluntly. I am so sorry to say that I just received a call from the hospital. Itachi is gone."

A look of shock befell on all the members present. Kisame stood up screaming, "What do you mean he's gone? He couldn't just have walked away! He was in a coma!"

Tsunade looked at Kisame with eyes full of sympathy. "He's dead Kisame."

Kisame's eyes widened as he collapsed back into the chair, staring straight forward. Tobi was crying softly into Zetsu's shoulder while the two toned boy patted him comfortingly on the back. Deidara was crying while Sasori held him tightly to his chest. Kakuzu squeezed Hidan's hand as the pale boy stared forward in shock. Konan had a death grip on Pein's arm as she did the same and he rubbed her shoulder comfortingly.

"You all are free to return home for the day, and any absence for the next week will be excused, note or no note." Tsunade was having a hard time not breaking down in front of the group. They may have been the biggest troublemakers in the school for the past two weeks but that hadn't stopped her from growing fond of each one, including Itachi. "I know you all are like family, and I know you all are going through a tough time." She paused to sigh sadly, "This Death's Bunch rumor spreading around school is true, isn't it."

Konan nodded, "Yes ma'am. We all have the mark."

Tsunade shut her eyes and sighed another sad sigh. "So is that why you all have been a pain in the behind these last few months." When some of them nodded she continued, "I can see what you're trying to do, but please don't do it in school anymore. We have rules and if anything else happens, I might have to expel some of you." She looked at each of them, waiting for everyone to show that they understood. "Alright. You are all free to pack up and return home. I don't want to see any of you until at least Friday."

~xXx~

Sasori had borrowed his grandmother's car that morning so he drove them to Uchiha mansion, stopping on his way to pick up a sobbing Sasuke. As soon as they had gotten to the mansion, the youngest Uchiha ran off to be by himself while the rest of them took seats in the living room.

Kisame looked downright dead. He hadn't spoke since Tsunade had to bluntly tell him that Itachi had died. He was basically a shell, a moving and breathing doll; barely even that. Everyone else who was gathered there seemed to share the same idea that Kisame wouldn't try to last the night.

"Ki-" Pein started but was interrupted by the sound of the youngest Uchiha bounding down the staircase.

He ran into the living room, pausing to gather his breath before holding up what was in his hand. He had a pile of small white envelopes with each of their names written on the front. "They're letters," He explained once his breath was back."From Itachi."

He passed them out, giving the next to last one to Kisame. "I found them laying in his keepsake drawer. He and I use to go through it once a year." The middle schooler had a far off smile on his face as he went on, "It had tons of memories we both shared, and some private ones of his." Here he looked to Kisame as he added, "We should go through it sometime. I'm sure he'd want you to see it."

Everyone had open their individual letters while Sasuke talked, reading them now that the room fell silent. Itachi had made a personalized letter to each of his friends, his lover, and his brother. The words on each page were slanted and sloppy compared to the Uchiha's normal elegant scrawl, like how it had become right before his collapse.

By the time they all had finished, even Kakuzu was tearing up. Kisame and Sasuke had broken down into a single sobbing mess, clinging onto each other like their life depended on it.

Pein ushered everyone out of the room to give the two some privacy. Once they were seated out in the dining room, Pein looked at each member present and spoke quietly, "We need to keep Kisame under close watch. If he's going to die, I would like to think it wasn't by his own hands."

The rest of Akatsuki nodded in agreement. They set up a watch in shifts. Pein and Konan would take him to their place to eat and then drop him off at his home where Sasori will be waiting. Deidara will come over in the morning so that Sasori could sleep and would wait for Zetsu and Tobi to pick Kisame up to take him to Kakuzu's. There the two of them plus Kakuzu and Hidan will keep him company until Pein and Konan pick him up and the process will repeat with only an exception for school.

They all agreed to this arrangement before leaving. Pein said that he'd give them each the time to grieve in their own ways. Pein and Konan were staying at the mansion to watch over Kisame, and to be able to take him to their place. As they watched each of their members walk out the door, each a little more broken inside than before, Pein sighed.

"What's wrong?" Konan asked with concern laced through every word.

"I just-" Pein paused to gather his thoughts, swallowing thickly, "Do you think I chose to do the right thing?"

Konan scrunched her eyebrows together, confused. "What do you mean?"

"By starting this whole deal I didn't give them each time to prepare for what was coming. Now each of them are leaving here with the thoughts 'am I next' and 'how am I going to die' filling their heads."

Konan shook her head, sending her deep blue bangs into her eyes. "You don't know them as well as you think then. Yes, each of them will be wondering but they have all been wondering since their mark first appeared." Pein reached out and swooped her bangs back but she cut him off before he could reply. "And yes, each of them are out there grieving for Itachi, but they are also realizing what you have started is very much needed. What you have started will be the reason most of them have kept, and will continue to keep the will to live."

Pein stared at Konan with shock on his face. After a moment it wore off though and he pulled her to him. They stood there in a warm embrace as each of them let out a few tears for Itachi.

After what seemed like an hour, a red eyed Kisame came into the room. He sniffed, "Where-," He stared but had to clear his throat. "Where is everyone?"

Pein and Konan stood back from each other as Pein answered, "They've all gone to grieve alone."

Konan's was quick to add as she smiled at him, "Would you and Sasuke like to come over for dinner?"

Kisame nodded. "I think Sasuke would like that." He smiled but quickly added, "As would I." as he caught a look in Konan's eyes.

"Great!" Konan started to skip out of the room adding, "I'll just go get Sasuke then!"

Pein laughed and clapped Kisame on the back. "We should go. It's best not to keep her waiting."

Kisame nodded with a small trace of a smile on his lips as he followed Pein out to the waiting van.

~xXx~

Kakuzu had lead Hidan back to his place where they sat on the couch, wrapped in each others arms. Before too long the innocent cuddling turned into something less than innocent.

Hidan began to assault Kakuzu's lips with his own, practically forcing his tongue into his boyfriend's mouth. One hand traveled up the back of Kakuzu's shirt while the other began to edge southward towards the hem of the other's pants.

Grabbing Hidan's hands, Kakuzu paused their make-out session. "Are you sure we should be doing this now?"

Hidan replied quickly, "I need to forget Kuzu."

"Yes but afterwards you will only remember again. Nothing can chase this away for long."

Hidan laid his forehead on the stitched man's chest. "But it hurts."

Kakuzu wrapped his arms around Hidan as he broke down into tears. He rubbed his back while whispering in his ear, "I know, I know. I hurt too." He then finally allowed one tear to slide down his cheek and into silver hair.

They eventually fell asleep, cuddled up in one big ball on the couch.

~xXx~

Zetsu watched Tobi swing while he ripped apart a leaf. He was surprised that the masked boy hadn't decomposed into a sobbing wet mess like Kisame and Sasuke did. The boy had, instead, shed a few tears, shook his head, and then asked if they could go to the park.

"Itachi use to take me and Sasuke here." Zetsu looked up from the mangled leaf to the source of the small voice. Tobi had stopped swinging and let his legs dangle as he stared at the ground. He laughed, "We'd all get in a huge fight over who could swing the highest." Zetsu stood and walked over to Tobi, laying his hand on the younger boy's shoulder.

"Itachi always won of course. He was older and had longer legs." Tobi paused. "Who's going to beat us now." His words became watery as he started to cry.

Zetsu squeezed his shoulder to let the younger boy know he was there. He wasn't good with handling crying people. He just stood there, rooted to the spot, and let Tobi lean back on him as he cried for his cousin.

~xXx~

Deidara threw another bomb out into the clearing, watching it explode, sending dirt into the wind. After the dust cleared he sat down and prepared to make another one, having already run out of the first twenty he originally made long ago. This was how the blond coped with things like loss. He pretended his sorrow was the bomb and with each dust cloud, it was flowing away.

Unfortunately his sorrow seemed to be greater than the amount of clay he had brought with him. As he reached into the bag, he only felt the bottom, plus a few little dried out crumbs. He then threw the bag on the ground a few feet in front of him and placed his chin in his hands, glaring at the stirred up dirt created by his bombs.

Sasori was off behind him, leaning against a tree from a safe distance away. He had watched as his blond got angrier and angrier as each bomb went off until he finally ran out. He took this as his cue to step forward and wrap his arms around the blond.

Deidara promptly started to sob, leaning into Sasori's arms. The red head held him like this, rocking back and forth while whispering soothing words into his ear.

The sun started to set and Sasori had to coax Deidara to stand.

They left the clearing and headed to Deidara's to drop the blond off before Sasori went to Kisame's. They held each others hands the whole way, afraid to let go and lose the other.

~xXx~

Pein and Konan had just dropped Kisame off with Sasori and were driving back home. "He's so broken." Konan whispered and Pein only nodded to agree.

Kisame hadn't eaten any of the food Jiraiya had cooked for the four broken teens. He had just stared at the plate while pushing the food around. He never spoke and only nodded or shook his head glumly when spoken to. He hadn't even said good-bye when they dropped Sasuke off with Tobi.

"I'm worried about him, Pein." She looked down at her feet. "Maybe we should just let him go."

Pein reached over and grabbed her hand. She looked up at his smile. It was so bright and full of life. 'Almost too bright,' she thought, smiling back.

Now, fate is a fickle thing. It leads you on to believe one thing, when the ending is completely different. It keeps people guessing so that no one can determine when, where and how the end will play out.

This night for instance is quiet; peaceful even. All the children have turned to their beds, dreaming of their tomorrows. The sky was clear and the stars where bright. It was a dark and silent night.

And then, with the high pitch squeal of tires and a resounding click, the night lit up with a crash and a bang.


	11. Chapter 11

Kisame walked passed the unconscious body of his red headed friend, eyes focused only on the lock box hidden under the desk. He quickly opened it to pull out a small 9 mm revolver. Once the gun was free of its cage, Kisame sat back in the desk chair staring at the shining silver and running a finger over the cool metal.

He had really tried these last few days, since Itachi ended up in the hospital. He really had tried to picture a life without his love, a life without happiness; but, try as he might, he just couldn't do it. So here he was, at his solution.

Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a very creased and wrinkled paper. It was the letter addressed to him from his love. To prolong what must be done, though he won't admit it, he read over the letter once more. This time he let every word seep into his very being, trying to picture his dead lover reading these words himself.

My dear, dear Kisame,  
I have known forever that I would be the first of us to go; however, I wish it hadn't been so soon. We had plans. To travel the world, to marry sometime in the spring, to live long lives together, and maybe to even adopt one day, but this stupid disease is tearing me away before we can even start our life together.  
Unfortunately, I am starting to feel weak. I can barely scratch this pen across this single piece of paper and after just one passage I must pause to give my arm the chance to relax. I'm growing weaker, Love, and I know it won't be long now. There is just one thing I wish for you to carry out once I'm gone.  
Live, Kisame. Live. I know it will be hard and may not seem worth it, but please. Please live on. I need someone to take care of Sasuke because Kami knows Tobi can't. Besides, you need to make sure Pein's dream becomes a reality. Even if I'm gone, you must stay strong for everyone else, if not for me.  
I love you, Kisame. Oh how I love you, with all my heart. I will be waiting for you in the beyond, but do not come before your time. Please.  
All my love,  
Itachi

Kisame blinked, trying to stop the tears that were freely cascading down his cheeks. "I'm sorry, so sorry." He couldn't fulfill Itachi's last wish. It was too much. Only one day and he was already drowning. He knew the second he got his mark how his death would play out. He just wished it wouldn't hurt his friends he will be leaving behind. He hoped that they knew how sorry he is and how much happier he'll be. They surely would understand this, no matter how much it hurt. They'd know. They'd understand. But will they forgive?

Wiping the still flowing tears from his face with the back of the hand holding Itachi's letter, he brought the gun to his temple. He glanced over at Sasori and whispered a soft, "I'm so, so sorry." Then, with the last thing he had left of his love clutched tightly to his heart, he pulled the trigger and left the room spattered in red.

xXx

Sasori awoke with a sharp pain in the back of his head. His mind was clogged and he felt like he was in a thick murky fog. It seemed like an eternity before he could finally comprehend what was going on around him.

The first thing he noticed was Deidara. He was right by his side and was sobbing. Grabbing his head, the red head sat up. "What the hell happened?"

"Danna!" Deidara gasped and latched himself onto his boyfriend. "I thought I was gonna lose you too, un."

Sasori wrapped the arm that wasn't holding his head around the blond, patting his back and trying to reassure the blond that he was ok. Once the other had calmed down he felt he could finally ask, "What exactly happened?"

Deidara lost it again. Through his sobs, Sasori could make out the words, "Ki-isame k-kill-led 'im-ms-self-f."

Brown eyes flew wide open as they searched for the proof. He found it all over the desk and the wall behind it. Red. It was everywhere. Then there, slumped in the chair, was the body of their friend. His eyes were fully open and looking straight up. In one hand was a small gun, barely staying in place in the limp hand. The other rested on his lap, clutching a piece of paper.

Kakuzu and Hidan bursted into the room, followed closely by Tobi and Zetsu. The orange masked boy immediately turned with a loud cry and buried his head into Zetsu's chest, who looked horrified at the sight before him. Hidan stared, covering his mouth as an equally shocked Kakuzu held him to his side.

"Death seems to be having a picnic today." The stitched man spoke bitterly.

Sasori looked up at him in confusion. "What do you mean?"

The silence that followed was only broken by sobs until Zetsu spoke up. "Pein and Konan were killed on their way home." He explained quietly, after clearing a lump out of his throat. "Drunk driver."

The room fell silent except for Deidara's sobs, muffled by Sasori's shoulder, as everyone let the fact that four of their friends were now gone forever. Before too long, Tobi had started sobbing and Hidan looked close to following.

"Let's get out of here." Kakuzu mumbled, leading Hidan out the door first. Tobi and Zetsu followed as sirens were heard approaching. Sasori and Deidara made it out into the front yard as a police cruiser and an ambulance pulled into the drive.

Two cops got out of the car. One headed for the house with the two EMTs while the other walked over to them. "What's going on here?" He asked, voice comforting.

Kakuzu was the first who was able to talk. "Our-" he started before having to clear his throat. "Our friend committed suicide."

The officer nodded. "Did anyone see him do it?"

Sasori shook his head. "I was suppose to be keeping an eye on him, but he managed to knock me out."

"So you found him when you awoke?"

Now Deidara shook his head. "I f-found him, un." He swallowed loudly and sniffed before continuing, "I had arrived to get him and Sasori to go over to my place, un."

"So you're all friends of..."

"Kisame." Kakuzu interjected for him. "Yes we are."

"Alright. Do you know the reason he killed himself? Bulling or a bad break up perhaps?"

Kakuzu nodded. "The love of his life died two days ago. We knew he was going to try something so we set up this sort of watch thing."

"That was very smart of you." He smiled at the teens before asking, "Now, is there anyone else we can contact? Other family maybe?"

"He had no one but us and Itachi." Kakuzu replied.

"Pein and Konan." Tobi whispered.

"Who?" The officer asked.

Kakuzu sighed sadly. "Our friends Pein and Konan. They dropped him off here last night. They were killed by a drunk driver on their way home."

The policeman looked shocked. "You mean to tell me you kids have lost four friends so close together?"

"Yes. Though apparently there's more to come."

" I see." the officer nodded to Zetsu, noticing the X across his lips.

" It's not just him. We all have it now."

"And how are you guys not all depressed and moping around your homes?" The man seemed truly shocked at the fact that these six teens were going through such hardships and weren't completely crushed.

"We have a mission to fulfill." Kakuzu smiled sadly at the rest of his friends.

"What could that possibly be?"

"We want to change the world from its depressed state and turn it into one of fun." Kakuzu explained with the sad smile still on his stitched face. "Everyone needs to see that they must live life to the fullest. Like every day is their last."

"You guys came up with this on your own?"

"Pein did." Kakuzu turned his head to the rest of the group. "Its now our turn to make sure we complete it."

The officer shook his head in disbelief. These teens surely had life figured out. He thanked them and turned to leave but noticed the hoard of reporters gathered around the house. He moved to tell the kids to go around back, however, they were already moving towards the reporters, determined looks plastered on every teary eyed face.

That night the local, national and even global news stations ran the story of the teenagers who stared into death's face and laughed. Each of them were interviewed personally and each of them gave nearly the same speech.

Life needed to be lived to the fullest.


	12. Chapter 12

It's a lazy Friday morning and the only people in the school are the teachers. All their concentration was set on the day ahead or the weekend that came after, so none of them noticed the group of students sneaking in the back door to the gym. Neither, did they notice the mask wearing boy sneaking through the hallways.

Tobi was unusually quiet as he snuck into the empty broadcasting room. He shut the door slowly so as to not make any noise and blow his cover. He may have been suppose to do the morning announcements today, however, he was about an hour early to even think about starting them. Then again, the broadcast today would be much different from normal.

The normally eccentric boy set about quietly fortifying the door so that even the strongest teacher couldn't get through. After placing about every heavy object in front of the door, he placed the bulky gym bag he brought with him on the desk supporting the mic and other such equipment. Pulling out random tapes and CDs, he began to plan the day ahead.

About an hour after Tobi stowed away in the news room, students began filtering into the building, heading to each classroom with only a small amount of enthusiasm for the weekend. At 7:25 Tobi started up the intercom and began what would probably go down in Konaha High's history as the most rebellious act ever.

"Greetings students and faculty of Konaha High! This is you're fun-loving friend Tobi here to give you the news! However! I think we all can agree that news is boring. So let's skip to today's segment of WTOUITWT!"

Tobi smiled as he heard Tsunade yelling from all the way down the hall, and almost cracking up he announced, "Oh man! Looks like there's no undergarments at all today! Naughty, naughty Ms. Tsunade!"

All throughout the school laughter rang out as even the teachers tried to snuff out a chuckle or two. Tsunade was livid as she rounded the corner to the broadcast room only to become even more aggravated by the fact that the room was locked. "Tobi Uchiha! Open this door this instant!"

"Ooo," Tobi smirked. "Sounds like somebody's mad that the cat left the bag." Chuckling at his own joke, he continued on, "Well boys and girls, I have a special treat for ya! Today, all day, I shall be broadcasting all you're favorite cartoons, tv shows, music selections and more! If you wanna request anything give me a call at 543-7869! Now let's get today started off with a classic cartoon! Give it up for Scooby Doo!"

Tobi switched the mic off and started the DVD player that would turn on every tv in the school and would play whatever was in the player on each screen. Cheers could be heard up and down the halls and Tobi sat back to enjoy the pissed off shouts of Tsunade from the other side of the door. When she came around to the window he smiled at her and made motions that said he couldn't hear her.

For the next three hours he alternated between cartoons and music, putting his comments in here and there. At ten thirty the locksmith arrived as Tobi was in the middle of holding a "radio show" with the callers that called in.

"So, Mr. Banana Boat, as he would like to be known as, has just brought to my attention that a locksmith has arrived." Tobi smiled as he heard the doorknob turn and Tsunade curse. "Fret not my lovely fans! There's no way they can infiltrate my fortress of awesome, as they are now figuring out!

"Now that we're all on the same page, where was I... Ah yes! So let me know what you think, should Gai get a new hair style, or is his bowl-cut of youth too awesome to remove? Remember! Tobi Promises to keep your identity a secret! Tobi is a good boy!"

"Ah we have a caller!" Tobi smiled as he put the phone up to his ear, letting out "uh huh", "I see", and a few "Oh"s before closing the small flip phone. "Well Ms. Frenchy says that the bowl-cut of youth, is a bowl-cut of poop! Sorry Mr. Gai but as even more texts come in, it seems that you're hair-do, is a major hair-don't! Better luck with the next hair cut!"

"Alright I say it's time for some LMAO requested by Ms. Squishida the Friendly Raccoon! Here's 'I'm Sexy and I Know It'!"

Tobi turned off the mic as the song played throughout the school. Currently Tsunade and two other teachers, Asuma and Yamamoto, we're trying to push their way in. However, Tobi was quite clever when he needed to be and had fixed a table and two shelves that held camcorders and other equipment so that the shelves were side to side and the table was wedged tightly I between the door and the wall. The only way they would get in the room was to break that table, which Tobi didn't doubt was possible, it just wouldn't happen anytime soon.

Lunch rolled around and Tobi held a lunch hour special of Jeff Dunham's most popular skits that he had burned the night before. The teachers out side the door grew to five as they all took turns trying to get the door open, or get Tobi to open the door. Tsunade had even resorted to threatening expulsion, causing masked boy to scoff. He wouldn't live till next year anyways so what was the point?

Around one thirty he got a call from Deidara and smiled. The diversion had worked! Since Gai and Anko, the two gym teachers, had joined in the mob outside the door, their classes were canceled and the remaining Akatsuki members were able to carry out their plan with little problems. And with almost no time to spare too. The table had started to crack about ten minutes ago when the teachers started taking on the door two at a time. Five minutes later and they started trying all at the same time, successfully snapping the desk in two.

"Uh oh! Looks like this is it! Now before I'm haled away by some very pissed off teachers, I would like to invite you all to leave your classes to go to the gym! A surprise awaits you're arrival! Till next time! Tobi Out!"

Not even a millisecond passed after Tobi finished his final message, as he was pulled up by an ear and lead out of the room. However, they were stopped in the hallway by a movement of both students and teachers heading towards the gym at the back of the school.

"What's the meaning of this?" Tsunade yelled. A kid bumped into her arm causing her to let go of Tobi, giving him a chance to escape which he gladly took.

Once in the gym, 'ooo's and 'ahh's went around the group gathered there as they took in the surroundings. Red, blue, and pink glitter coated the floor and was stirred up into clouds by small fans lining the back wall. Streamers of all colors hung down from the ceiling, blowing in the breeze created by the fans. The bleachers on the side were wrapped in a black fabric and paint covered them in small designs and drawings. Up against the front wall was a DJ station, set up with huge speakers and a large white clothe behind it. A projector allowed psychedelic images to appear on the clothe and the lights were dimmed and covered in different colored plastic so that the room was multihued.

The side opposite of the bleachers was lined with tables covered in a red cloth and multicolored confetti. On top of them sat almost every drink you could think of, along with about every snack you could think of. Plates, silverware, napkins and cups were stacked randomly along the table.

Deidara and Sasori stood at one end of the tables next to a twister mat ten times the size of a normal one as it took up one whole corner of the room. They each held smiles on their faces as the crowed got bigger. Deidara was decked out in red skinny jeans and a black long sleeved v-neck that complemented Sasori's black jeans, black t-shirt and red vest.

Hidan and Kakuzu stood by the doors to the outside, where just a peak of a gaming station underneath a tent could be seen. Hidan seemed to have borrowed one of Deidara's pairs of black skinny jeans which he complemented with a red tank top. Kakuzu wore a tight fitting black tank top with a red checkered pattern along with a pair of black jeans.

Tobi ran to the DJ table where Zetsu was stationed. The plant fanatic was also dressed in red and black, with a red shirt sporting a black dragon design on the front. Tobi kissed his boyfriend, earning a few shocked gasps, and grabbed a mic. "Hey all! Who's ready for the über awesomest dance of all dances? Here to last until you can't take no more!"

Cheers roared though the gym and Zetsu started the music off with a remix of Tik Tok by Ke$ha. Tobi sat himself up on the table as took to watching the crowd explore. He watched Deidara and Sasori gather people for a round of ultimate Twister, as well as, Hidan and Kakuzu leading groups outside to where he knew had a few DDR mats and Guitar Hero's set up for battling, a long with a few chairs and blankets for those who just wanted to sit and relax somewhere cool.

Tsunade stood amongst the crowd, watching as students and teachers alike took to dancing and playing games. She couldn't help the little smile that came over her lips. She would have to wait to punish the obvious perpetrators later. For now, she'd let the school lighten up with laughter and games. 'They'll need it for the weeks to come.' She thought, glancing over to the Akatsuki members that were now sitting together behind the DJ station.

As the night wore on, concerned parents showed up, wondering why their children hadn't returned home. One of the Akatsuki members greeted them and explained exactly what was going on. Then invited them each to join in, telling them they all have to act like they're teenagers every now and again. Most of the parents accepted the invitation, joining the mob of dancers on the floor. There were a few who didn't though, and they sat amongst the bleachers to wait for their kids. Before the end of the night however, they had been pulled into the throng of things and thoroughly enjoyed themselves.

The Akatsuki watched from their spot at the front of the gym as their hard work and effort were coming together. There was still one last thing that they felt had to be done.

Zetsu paused the music after a song ended and Sasori took up the microphone. "I'm sorry to interrupt all the merrymaking, but we have just one somber note to address for the night." He paused, waiting for the gym and outside area to quiet before contending. "Some of you may have noticed that four members of our school are missing today, Itachi, Kisame, Pein and Konan. Some of you may already know but for those of you who don't, each of them has passed away." A few gasps were heard and whispers took over the quiet of the room. "We know that they wouldn't have wanted us to despair so instead we want each of you to pair up, whether it's with a relative, friend, or boy slash girlfriend, and share in this slow dance dedicated to their lives."

Zetsu put on Order Made and stepped out from his spot for the first time of the night. As everyone paired up, pictures of the four Akatsuki members showed on the fabric hanging above the DJ station. The slideshow went from individual pictures to ones with family and friends. Even candid photo's made their way in there. Everyone around the gym watched as they swayed back and forth to the music. Laughs and complements made their way around as each picture passed. Some of the people who actually knew them were starting to cry.

The remaining Akatsuki members all had tears in their eyes by the time the song ended and everyone stopped to clap. Sasori took the mic again and with a shaky voice, thanked everyone in the room. "Now, as I said, they wouldn't want us to wallow in sorrow. So, Hit it Zetsu!"

As Zetsu began the fast pace music once more, the Akatsuki all stood back and watched as people dried their faces and began to dance once more. "I think," Tobi started, "that they're all watching as well. With huge smiles!"

"Yeah." Hidan added, wiping the few tears off his face. "And laughing their fuckin' asses off at Tsunade's moves over there." Tsunade had joined in the dancing and games. She was currently surrounded by a circle of students who were watching her Pop Lock it and Drop it quite flawlessly.

They all laughed for a brief moment before returning to silence. "You know," Deidara said after ten minutes of just quietly observing. "The school does seem much lighter than before."

The rest of them nodded in agreement. The dance had defiantly lightened everyone's spirits. Though, if they really thought about it. The school had been getting lighter before hand too. With the combined efforts of Akatsuki, the halls of the school slowly became more cheerful and colorful. Tsunade had even lightened up and gave out less harsh punishments.

The Akatsuki reflected on this as they watched the results of Pein's vision come to life. They watched people dance the night away with the last group leaving the door at six a.m. Tsunade walked up to the group as they started to pack up and clean.

"You guys can just head on home. I'll get someone to clean this up on Sunday." She smiled.

"Are you sure?" Kakuzu asked, surprised. "We were planning on doing it anyways."

She waved her hand in front of her face. "Yes, yes! Consider it cleaned. Now I want all of you to go home and go to bed." She smiled wider at them. "I know you must all be exhausted."

They couldn't really argue with Deidara and Hidan practically sleeping on their feet, supported by their boyfriends with equally sleepy faces. "Alright," Zetsu nodded.

"Thank you, Tsunade." Sasori mumbled as they all headed out the door.

"No," She whispered back, "Thank you."


	13. Chapter 13

Everyone was dressed from head to toe in muted black. Silence stretched out over the open field as people took their seats under a large tent. Four caskets sat in front of the tent. Flowers and pictures collected on and around the closed coffins. A huge banner hung from across the tent; We Love You! It had each of their names after the endearing words; Pein, Konan, Itachi, and Kisame.

As the funeral for the four teens commenced, people were allowed to come up and speak about them. Only a few people walked up at first, speaking about how they will miss them and how much they're loved.

Finally, Jiraiya stood up. He made his way slowly up the isle, teary eyed but determined. As he stood in front of the podium, looking out over the small crowd gathered in the hill top cemetery, he took a shaky breath and began.

"I didn't think I'd be back here so soon," He paused, possibly thinking about the last child he had to bury just ten years ago. "I had hoped not to. Pein and Konan were my little boy and girl. Even though they aren't that small anymore." A sad, serene smile fell across his face at this fact.

"They were rambunctious, and more trouble to handle than I thought possible." A small laugh spilled for the memories. "But they were good kids. Kisame and Itachi too. Kami knows they've been like second sons to me since way back when…All of their friends had become an extension of my own crazy little family. They were all wonderful children. So full of happiness." Here the gray haired man let out the sobs he had been holding back. Tsunade rushed up to the podium and lead the grief-stricken father back to his seat.

After a moment of silence, except for a few sobs, Sasuke made his way up to the front. "My brother and his friends were insane," He began, smiling softly. "They always had some crazy plot they were working on. More than once I was a victim to their pranks, as I'm sure you all were." Here a few chuckles went around the group as they all remembered a specific time. "No matter how mad they made me, I always loved them. I still love them." The last part was strained as the Uchiha tried to rein in his emotions. With tears threatening to overflow, he headed back to his seat.

Tobi headed up the isle and stood looking out at the crowd of faces, most of which he knew. "These four were some of my bestest friends. Even my cousin, who I distinctly remember being insanely jealous of when I was younger." His speech was punctuated with sniffs every once in a while as he was clearly crying behind the swirly orange mask. "I know I'm the youngest of the group, yet they all treated me the same. Especially Pein. He was the glue that held us all together. He taught us to carry on Living with our lives. That even with death at our heels we can still live happy, normal lives. He lived by that rule, and now, so do I." He left the podium then, taking his seat next to Zetsu and crying into his shoulder.

Deidara was the next one to walk up. He stood, eyes overflowing with tears, and spoke in a shaky voice. "My best friends lay behind me now. Though, I remember hating Itachi at first. The cool Uchiha who kept destroying my art in first grade. Then Pein and Konan set him straight. We've been friends ever since and I love them like family. They're the inspiration for my masterpieces, un."

Sasori took his turn, staring out at the crowded tent with a faraway look on his face. "Pein and Konan were inspiring for all of us, I think. And Kisame and Itachi made us want to find our own soul mates with the way they were so deeply in love. These four were part of the reason I'm alive now." Here his voice got a bit over emotional and he let out a shaky sigh. "After my parents died in that accident, I was totally lost. Pein saw that and pulled me into their group. A bit forcefully might I add." He let out a breathy laugh and ended, "They gave me everything. I love them for it."

Hidan was up next and with water filled eyes, he began his speech. "I know you all cringed when I got up here but you don't have to worry. I won't demean my best friends with my mouth." Sights of relief were heard throughout the crowd. "Actually, they're much more than my friends. They're my family. They saved me more than once. Just like Sasori, they saved me from ending it all back in middle school. Pein helped most of all. It's just the type of guy he is. How they all are. They put others before themselves, a motto worth living for. And one I will try to continue to live under."

Zetsu watched the crowd with sad golden eyes. "I know we don't talk much," His white half starting, black half adding, "Or at all." "But we feel obligated to say something for our brothers and sister, for that's what they are." "In every sense of the words." "In the first year of high school we had read somewhere that if you share a drink with someone, they become your brother." "Or sister." "So that weekend we shared some sake." "Only a glass for you strict people out there." "After that, we were more than just a group of obnoxious kids, we were family." "And that will never change."

Kakuzu was the last person to get up. He closed his eyes and sighed. "My siblings are wonderful people. IN life they helped all they came across. Going out of their ways to brighten someone's day. But I'm sure if each of us thinks back, Pein is the one who started this family. He was the one to pull us all together. First the soft spoken contemplative Konan. Then the equally quiet and smart Itachi. The pranking, blue freak Kisame. Puppet boy Sasori. The pyromaniac Deidara. Crazy, hyper Tobi. The potty mouthed Jashinist, Hidan. And finally me. The broken miser. He glued us together. Our brother, the charismatic leader. We won't forget him. Or our other brothers and sister. And we will continue what they have begun. For them, if no one else."

The combined funeral closed with the coffins being lowered into the ground of Akatsuki Cemetery. The remaining Akatsuki members stayed a bit longer though, watching their friends – no – siblings being covered with dirt. Tobi and Deidara were openly sobbing while Hidan was trying to hold his tears back. Their partners held them until the sun set, the caskets long been buried.

"You know," Sasori spoke suddenly, breaking the sad silence. "I'm surer than ever that we need to keep up Pein's mission."

"Was there ever any doubt?" Kakuzu questioned.

"No, but it just feels ten times stronger."

They stood in silence for a few more minutes before Kakuzu spoke up. "Come on guys. We got work to do." And with that, they left the cemetery, parting from four of their siblings.

Four tombstones stood where four teenagers would have stood. Yet it still almost seemed as if their ghosts were standing over them, smiling after their brothers and waving their farewells. Until next time.


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, this is it. The final chapter. Enjoy! And thanks for reading!

ONE YEAR LATER

Sasuke stared his way up the stairs to the attic of the Uchiha mansion. He sighed with apprehension for the task he had finally settled to do. A blond head bounded up the steps in front of him. Even if Sasuke had finally grabbed the courage to do this, he still couldn't do so alone. So, he had asked the hyperactive Uzumaki Naruto to help him.

Entering the attic with the blond idiot, he looked around at the boxes gathered throughout the cramped space. They held all the memories gathered by the Akatsuki. His goal was to sort through all of these memories. He had held it off for too long. He was supposed to pick through what he wouldn't need and trash it, but he had no idea whether he could do so.

Resolving himself to the hard task ahead of him, he grabbed the box nearest to him and began sorting through the contents. The first few boxes were filled with Pein, Konan, Kisame, and Itachi's things. The fifth box he pulled over held ten hoodies folded haphazardly. On top of them was a black handkerchief with the Akatsuki's cloud embroidered on it. Sasuke held it up and smiled. It was Kakuzu's favorite.

"Oi, Sasuke!" Naruto made his way over to Sasuke, holding up a small booklet. "Is this the play you were telling me about?"

The Uchiha grabbed the paper out of his friend's hand, smiling at the title. Over top of the elegant print reading, Romeo and Juliet, the word "Bitchin'" was written in Hidan's familiar messy scrawl. "Yep," he answered. "This was Hidan's masterpiece."

Satisfied, Naruto went back to his search, having much more fun looking at the mysterious things than finding what was trash or not. Sasuke, however, began to flip through the book and let his mind travel back to that night. Hidan had been the male lead with some blond being Juliet. Hidan had been gathering up the cast after their original practice to pitch his ideas for flipping the play. Without the director knowing, they went into the night of the play in which each cast member eagerly awaited their parts. In the end, the play finished with the director and audience in tears of laughter and Hidan 'proposing' to Kakuzu.

Sasuke's smile faded. It was the week after that when Hidan ended up in the hospital. Apparently he had been sick for a while and was holding it from everyone. He had collapsed on his way home from school with Kakuzu and was diagnosed with cancer. He only had a month left when they caught it. He spent that month in the hospital, with Kakuzu by his side. The stitched man refused food and sleep the whole time he was there until he caught an illness himself and ended up being admitted. Both Hidan and him had fought to have the same room and after a week of raising total hell on earth, they were granted a room together. That night they both passed, holding on to each other's hand tightly.

Laying the booklet on top of Kakuzu's mask, Sasuke pushed the box to the side and reached for the next one. Before he could open it, however, Naruto called out in a soft voice, "I remember these." In one hand he held up a puppet with long blond hair. "There was a puppet show in the park when I moved here last year. I had wondered what had happened to the man who ran it." Pulling out a second puppet with short, scruffy red hair he whispered, "I guess I know now."

"Those are Sasori's." Sasuke said, walking over to the box. It was full of puppets, most resembling an Akatsuki member. "He wanted to create a puppet show that kids could enjoy as well as the parents." The red head had started up the puppet show once Hidan and Kakuzu both ended up in the hospital. He wanted to do his part in helping to brighten the world with the only way he knew how; with art. He had hosted a puppet show in the park for an hour after school each day, and three hours on weekends. Children had loved it, as well as the adults for it had humor for all age groups.

It was from one of his shows that tragedy came. Sasori was at the park, packing up his grandmother's car with his supplies as he had just finished the show. Once he finished, he had caught sight of a young woman who wasn't paying attention. She tried to cross the street into oncoming traffic but the red-head caught her arm, pulling her to safety. Apparently, her boyfriend had seen that as a move towards his girl and pushed Sasori into the street. The semi driver hadn't even notice him fall.

Pain and anger mixed inside Sasuke's heart as he dropped the puppets back into the box. The next box however brought no comfort, instead increasing his anger. Inside laid all of Zetsu's gardening tools and a few packets of seeds for assorted flowers. The plant lover's death had been no better, but less heroic. He lived in a bad part of town, where a lot of gangs ran around. He had been in the wrong place, at the wrong time. A drive by shooting occurred that day. He had been one of many innocent bystanders to be pronounced dead on the scene.

"Sasuke?" Naruto's voice brought him out of his painful memories. "What's this?"

Looking to the blond beside him, he looked over the object in his hands. It was a little clay bird. Its neck was craned to look down and looked to be nesting. Turning quickly, he sorted through the box of clay and other sculpting materials. "Is the scorpion in here?" After a brief moment of digging, the Uchiha pulled out a small clay scorpion with its tail arced in the air. "Hand me the bird?" Naruto did as he asked and Sasuke gently sat the bird on the scorpion's back. It was a perfect fit. The bird now seemed to be looking down at the scorpion lovingly and the scorpion's tail was wrapped protectively around the bird.

"Deidara created this after Sasori died." Sasuke had a faint smile on his face. "It pained him not to blow it up, but he respected and loved Sasori enough to let it last as eternal art." Deidara had been so broken when Sasori had died. He made the sculpture for the red-head but the day he was going to take it to the cemetery, he died himself.

Deidara visited the place where he set off his art with Sasori each time another one of them died. After Sasori's death, he visited the site nearly every day. He stated he could hear his lover's voice with the wind after each explosion. It only took one moment of hesitation for one of his masterpieces to go off in his hands.

Setting the two clay sculptures beside him, Sasuke moved to the next and last box. "We'll take these two to the cemetery later today. I think Deidara would have liked to have them buried with him and Sasori." Naruto nodded, watching over Sasuke's shoulder as the raven haired teen pulled out an orange swirled mask. Tobi had been with Deidara that day in the clearing. They had gotten into the habit of sticking together, not wanting to die alone. He held the blond while they waited for the ambulance. He said that Deidara had told him he could hear all of their friends calling to him and telling him that they've been waiting for him. Two minutes before the paramedics came through the trees, Deidara had died in his arms.

Tobi had been a wreck before when Zetsu died, but after the last of his friends had died he broke completely. He'd wander around aimlessly, speaking to his dead friends as if they were right beside him. More than once Sasuke had found the masked boy in his pajamas out in the night, staring at the moon and whispering his love to the air. He had also begun to neglect his own care, becoming as helpless as a baby. It was no wonder he had passed over a simple case of the flu. His body had lost the will to fight and despite how bad it may sound, Sasuke was glad when his cousin passed. He was now at peace once more.

He set the mask aside and brushed his tears off with his sleeve. Shifting through the box again he found a simple black DVD case. Across the front was written, For Sasuke, after we all are gone. Picking it up he stood and headed down the stairs, Naruto in tow, asking questions all the way. Once they reached the living room, he inserted the disk and stepped back to watch. After only a few minutes, he ejected the video.

"This isn't just for me." He explained to Naruto and walked to the kitchen to make a phone call.

~xXx~

Pein's pierced face smiled out off every screen in Konaha High. His grin was wide as he spoke, "Hey all. This, in case you don't know, is Akatsuki filming their semi-final words. Semi because, well, not all of us have our lovely group marking yet and hopefully won't get it for a long time."

"Alright, anyways, this tape holds our final messages to those we know and love. So first off, I'd love to send my love to my father Jiraiya. You took care of us when no one else did, even after Nagato's death. You never gave up on Konan and I. For that, I fear my love may not be enough, Dad, but it's all a poor high school student has."

"And the lovely Tsunade. Thank you for putting up with our shit all year. I hope you realized that all we did was for everyone's, including your own, mental health. That boring gray building needed a makeover and an attitude adjustment which we gladly gave. Though, I hope you didn't go too insane. Oh! And I'd like to know if our W.T.O.U.I.T.W.T. broadcasts were ever right. 'Cause that would be so beyond awesome."

"Finally to all that's watching, I hope that you take our advice and not just live a boring life, but make it awesome and full of color."

Pein's face faded out to be replaced with Konan's soft smiling face. "Pein is always such a hard act to top so I'm a bit worried. One of our rules when making this was that only Pein would watch what everyone says. That way we don't make it just about each other, rather than all of you. After all, we all know what we mean to each other."

"As I'm sure Pein already did, I'd like to reconfirm my love and thanks for my father. We may not be related to each other by blood but you made sure we felt like family. I love you, Dad. So much."

"Now to all those girls out there who's overwhelmed by a huge amount of testosterone. Take it from me, you can be just as manly as them and play all their man-games and still remain perfectly girlish. After all, they can be girly too. "

"So don't be afraid to live in the moment like they do. And defiantly don't be afraid to have some of them over for makeovers. Certain people love them."

Deidara replaced Konan sitting on the stool. Taking a deep breath, he began, "Okay, un… Well I don't know about all of you but doing your own farewell speech is kind of… awkward, un."

"Well since I have no family, I guess I should skip to all of you, un. My advice… hmm… I guess I'd have to tell you not to be afraid to love. I admit it's scary after being disappointed too many times to count, and it's a bit confusing to have these feelings you have no idea what to do with, un... but I'd say love is over all a good emotion, unrequited or not.. So my big advice to you all would be to fall in love. Even if it hurts, un."

"Oh! And just so you know, all the murals were done by yours truly, un." His smile stretched from ear to ear as he gestured to himself. "No matter what Sasori says, un."

Sasori now sat in the chair in front of the camera, his brown eyes showing more emotion in them than usual. "I'm pretty sure everyone knows about my impatient nature. So I'm also sure it'll shock everyone to hear me say that I want you to take time to listen to what I have to say. But first…

"Granny Chiyo, I want to thank you for raising me even though you didn't have to. I know I've been a total brat and the next few weeks are going to be hell to deal with, but I know you'll stick it out. After all, my stubbornness is all from you."

After a brief pause, he began to address the others. "So now comes the part where you all must sit down and analyze what I say. First thing first, try your hardest to find the one you love. No matter what, you must find your other half and then... Make them yours completely. Pin them down and confess it if you have to. Just make sure you do it before it's too late."

Tobi jumped up and down on the seat in his usual hyperactive way. "Hi everyone! I'm sure you all remember me. After all, I'm not easy to forget. But for those few who don't know, my name is Tobi and I'm one of the best Akatsuki members! Just don't tell Hidan….

"'Kay. My goodbyes have to go to Sasuke. You're the only Uchiha left so wear the name with honor! I know you will do it proudly. I love ya, little cuz! You're going to turn out to be a great man. I know it!

Now as for all of you... I say you must have fun, play games, and enjoy life! You never know when it'll end so just play with it. Enjoy it! Oh, and don't be afraid about annoying people! Nothing should be allowed to rain on anyone's parade.

"Oh! And Tsunade, I'm really sorry about W.T.O.U.I.T.W.T. But it was too fun to pass up and like I said, fun is important so it was a must!"

Zetsu sat quietly for a moment, amber eyes staring straight at the camera. Eventually, his white half started, "As one of the more quiet and collected of our group, you all might be surprised to hear me tell you to go out, party and have fun. You'll be even more surprised to hear me tell you to invite everyone to join you.

"I've been left out of one too many things so I can tell you, inviting someone you hardly know over for a sleepover is worthwhile. So go out, party and bring everyone with you."

Finally, his black half added, "Damn straight!"

Hidan's twisted smile looked out of the screens. "So, I'm pretty damn sure my part may be bleeped out but what do I care? I'm here to get my message across bleeps or no fucking bleeps."

"So, first off, the sentimental shit. Tsunade, You were a bitchin' teacher and principal. Even if I was in your office every day I'm glad you never fully gave up on me. So thank you."

"Orochimaru, you may be creepy as fuck but I learned the most about anything from you, and Chem class was continuous fun with the banter we flung back and forth. Drama too. We could have put on productions with the crazy shit we do in there."

"Finally my last words to you would be to make something great even better, and if I don't live to turn Romeo and Juliet into Bitchin' Romeo and Juliet, I'd hope you'll all do it for me. But with no mark yet, I'm afraid you'll all have to come up with your own masterpiece."

"So have fun and make it your own."

"Later bitches! See you with Jashin." His two finger salute was the last thing he did before fading off the screen.

Kakuzu stared out of the screen, mask covering his face. "So, I'm sure everyone has a secret or two. I know I have my fair share. So my short and to the point advice would be to let that secret out."

"Now, in case I don't get a chance to let it out in person, here's my secret…" Here he stood and removed his mask and hoodie, revealing the many lines of scares crisscrossing his body. Sitting back down, he faced the camera once more. "Now that everyone can see my face, do you shrink back in fear, disgust or pity? Neither off those is what I want, which is why I didn't want anyone to see my face."

"So that was jut secret number one. Two is pretty pathetic if I say so myself and I may never work up enough courage to say it outside this room. But I am wholly and desperately in love… with Hidan. Yeah, pathetic but I can't help who I fall for, even if he's so annoying."

"Now that my secrets are out, I can safely say that it feels so much better to release them than hide them away. Actually, I think I'll take these secrets public this week. Then you can judge from my happiness whether or not secret sharing is bad or not. But trust me, you should still come out with a huge secret. It'll be worth it."

Kisame's shark like smile shined as he spoke, even though his words were gloomy. "I have to admit, I already know how I'm going to die. I know that without love I can't go on so I'll probably end my own life. Unless I go before him, which I hope not to do."

"As for family, little bro, Sasuke is the only one I can think of. You've become a brother to me, and a rather good one at that. I had always wanted siblings, and I can say I was glad to receive one in you. I love you little brother. And thank you for sharing your brother with me." At this he winked and laughed.

"So, since I am the only one certain of what's planned for me, I can give only one piece of advice to the rest of you. Live your life in happy bliss. Know the feelings and embrace them. You never know when your moment will come, but make sure to have gone in a furry of bubbly bliss."

Itachi's face was pale. It was clear this film was taken just before his collapse. His breath was shallow and ragged as he began. "Hello again to all for the last time. I'm probably the least surprising person to have the mark out of all of Akatsuki. I knew it was coming, even Tobi knew it was."

"So now I get to give out my last words, and they all go to my brother, Sasuke. Little brother, I am so sorry to leave you with this. Hearing the final words of anyone is heart wrenching enough without it being someone you know. Let alone ten people you know at once."

Here he smiled, a smile reserved only for his little brother. It was shaky and obvious it took a lot of effort to hold for the next sentences. "I just want you to know that I love you Sasuke and I'm sorry there won't be a next time for us. I'll miss you no matter where I end up."

"Now to the rest of you. Make sure you leave behind no regrets. I have so many and it pains me. So get rid of your regrets before it becomes too late."

After the last word died off, Itachi's face shrank into the bottom right corner of the screen as all of the other members faces came up. Pein's face being the upper right, Konan's upper left, Deidara's on the right, Sasori's started the next row on the left, Tobi's to the right, Zetsu's on the next row on the left, Hidan's in the middle, Kakuzu's on the right and Kisame's on the last row in the bottom left of the screen.

They all smiled out at the camera as Pein began to speak. "So, if today was your last day, would you try to change the world?"

Then, they all took turns speaking their lines, starting with Konan and going on down the line. "Would you live each second as if it were your last?"

"Will you find someone to love, un?"

"Would you make them yours?"

"Event a brand new game!"

"Invite the world to play with you."

"Turn a masterpiece into a bitchin masterpiece."

"Let loose a big secret."

"Live life in laughter and bliss."

Finally, Itachi finished by summing up the meaning behind each of the Akatsuki's words, and their actions over the course of their last months in one simple sentence. "Don't leave behind any regrets."

The screens in the school turned black as the last of the words faded out through the halls. Students and teachers alike were silent, taking in the words that had been given to them. There were hardly any dry faces throughout the building.

Tsunade sat in her office, face in her hands and brown eyes peeking out at the painting in her office. With a watery voice she whispered into her hand, "You fools." The ten former students may have been hell to deal with all of last year, but she had grown quite fond of them. Being addressed personally in some of their final words had pulled at her heart. She would probably never admit it out loud, but she would miss the rambunctious group.

Wiping her face and sitting up straight, she turned on her computer. She had a lot of planning to do if she wanted to fulfill all of Akatsuki's wishes. And you can be damn sure she was going to.

Jiraiya had a similar reaction. He sat at his desk, bawling. Freshmen boys and girls crowded around him, comforting him with their own watery eyed faces. He loved his kids and their friends. They were his family. He missed them terribly. The worst feeling for a father, was watching their kids die before them. No one should ever feel that way. He wouldn't wish it on his worst enemy.

Drying his tears, he smiled and thanked his students. He resolved himself to heed his children's message. As a father, it was now the only thing he could do for them.

Sasuke had sat in the back of Jiraiya's classroom, watching his teacher nearly break down. He was having a hard time himself. Hearing his brother's final words for him had brought back memories of their childhood together, before Itachi got sick. 'Sorry Sasuke, maybe next time,' was a quote the older Uchiha used each time he was too busy to play with him. It was bittersweet to hear those words as his brother's ultimate message to him.

Sasuke had pledged to live out his brother's and his friend's message. No one or thing would stop him from doing this. Not even the rules.

~xXx~

Over the years, Konaha High had become the leaders in the war against depression. Each and every one of the students and faculty had taken the advice of the Akatsuki, living their lives to the fullest each day. The teachers had worked to make their classes more fun and lighter than before, without taking away from the knowledge they needed to give. Tsunade had even made the first assembly of the year into a watching the video the teens made and a huge water balloon war.

On Sasuke's graduation day, he would repeat the impact his brother and friends had on the school years before with his valedictorian speech. He would include them, and examples from their lives. He would end his class' high school career with one pledge.

"Years ago, when my brother first got sick, he had promised me and all of his friends that he wouldn't let it stop him from doing anything he wanted to. He promised me he would enjoy his life to its full extent, no matter how long it would last. Here, I will return his promise of a lifetime."

Looking up to the sky, he backed away from the microphone and yelled with arms outstretched, "I promise to live my days to the fullest, brother! For you, Tobi, and all your friends! From here on out, I won't leave behind any regrets!"

And he didn't.


End file.
